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
The ancient spider that sat there at the centre, would rush along the network through all longitudes and latitudes, until he found the responsible caitiff, author of so much mischief.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 57, No. 354, April 1845 by Various
"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
This caitiff had the charge of the fair one whom I worshipped, and for whom I was dying of grief.
From The Book of the Duke of True Lovers by Pisan, Christin? de
Say what you have to say why justice shall not be done upon you, miserable caitiff, who would have sold a man’s life for a few pieces of silver!”
From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, July, 1893 by Various
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.
