disloyalty
Americannoun
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disloyalties
plural
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the quality of being disloyal; lack of loyalty; unfaithfulness.
- Synonyms:
- subversion
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violation of allegiance or duty, as to a government.
-
a disloyal act.
noun
Synonym Usage
Disloyalty, perfidy, treachery, treason imply betrayal of trust. Disloyalty applies to any violation of loyalty, whether to a person, a cause, or one's country, and whether in thought or in deeds: to suspect disloyalty in a friend. Perfidy implies deliberate breaking of faith or of one's pledges and promises, on which others are relying: It is an act of perfidy to cheat innocent people. Treachery implies being secretly traitorous but seeming friendly and loyal: In treachery deceit is added to disloyalty. Treason is performing overt acts to help the enemies of one's country or government: Acting to aid a hostile power is treason.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of disloyalty
1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French desloiaute, Old French desleaute, equivalent to desleal disloyal + -te -ty 2
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.
See Examples For:
Others, however, remain unhappy with his perceived disloyalty, having come out publicly about his desire to move to Madrid, with his agent Javier Pastore also claiming he is underpaid.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
Purges aimed at rooting out corruption and disloyalty have pushed many officials to focus on finding ways to please Beijing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Soviet authorities often saw the fact of their capture as a sign of possible disloyalty or collaboration with the enemy.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
The brand disloyalty counterintuitively plays into Ulta, which aims to discover new brands.
From Barron's ● Apr. 9, 2026
One such case involved the Rad Lab’s former staff chemist Martin Kamen, who had been fired by Ernest during the war in response to an unproved—and groundless—charge of disloyalty.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Bill Whitman is a Carverian ex-husband pummeled by remorse for his assorted disloyalties.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 4, 2018
Whitman is a Carverian ex-husband pummeled by remorse for his assorted disloyalties.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 21, 2018
Despite many internal disorders and disloyalties ... the people of the Soviet Union generally trust and respect the wisdom and integrity of their leaders.
From Time Magazine Archive
But apart from this uncertain question of generosity, there are in this case two powerful forces that make against disputes, secret disloyalties, and meanness.
From What is Coming? by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
Broad and white, and polished as silver, On she goes under fruit-laden trees; Sunk in leafage cooeth the culver, And 'plaineth of love's disloyalties.
From Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. by Jean Ingelow
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.
