caitiff
Americannoun
adjective
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of caitiff
1250–1300; Middle English caitif < Anglo-French < Latin captīvus captive
Vocabulary lists containing caitiff
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If a celebrated classroom caitiff like Peck's Bad Boy or Huckleberry Finn were to cut his swath through a U. S. school today, he would probably get off with a restrained scolding.
From Time Magazine Archive
You are an arrant rogue, a caitiff vile; there can be naught between us.
From The Mesa Trail by Bedford-Jones, H.
He was, indeed, without question, the most selfish little caitiff that ever drove a quill upon parchment.
From William Shakespeare as he lived. An Historical Tale by Curling, Henry
For Newcastle had betrayed him to the last; the magpie cunning of that old caitiff paralysed every arm that might have defended him.
From Lord Chatham His Early Life and Connections by Rosebery, Archibald Phillip Primrose
"Margaret, they are but a blind: Giles says so: no matter, the old caitiff shall never see them again; I will not go till I have hidden his treasure where he shall never find it."
From The Cloister and the Hearth A Tale of the Middle Ages by Reade, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
