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
Then to the green wood, caitiff, haste away: There take your chance to live—for Truth must say, We have no right, for theft, to hang up Tray.
From The Poems of Philip Freneau, Volume II (of III) by Freneau, Philip
In the tumult of his passion and fear Wade cursed the caitiff, his own legs in the swirl of the bights, his cant-dog nipping the rope to the post and checking it short.
From King Spruce, A Novel by Day, Holman
Alas, caitiff that I am, why did I leave the place whereto I was appointed and wherein I had come to my old age?
From Tales from the Old French by Various
He may be far from despising him; he may recognize his power and skill, but to be afraid of him would be the mark of the caitiff.
From The Warfare of the Soul Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation by Hughson, Shirley C.
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.
