Treacherous

Definition: Treacherous

Treacherous

Adjective

1. Dangerously unstable and unpredictable; "treacherous winding roads"; "an unreliable trestle".

2. Tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans; "Punic faith"; "the perfidious Judas"; "the fiercest and most treacherous of foes"; "treacherous intrigues".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "treacherous" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Note: Treacherous \Treach"er*ous\, adjective. [See Treacher.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Treacherous

Improbity

False-hearted, disingenuous; unfair, one-sided; double, double-hearted, double-tongued, double-faced; timeserving, crooked, tortuous,insidious, Machiavelian, dark, slippery; fishy; perfidious, treacherous, perjured.

Oblivion

Short memory, treacherous memory, poor memory, loose memory, slippery memory, failing memory; decay of memory, failure of memory, lapse of memory; waters of Lethe, waters of oblivion.

Crosswords: Treacherous

And the treacherous Dr Goodhead; your desire to become America's first woman in space will shortly be fulfilled. (Moonraker; writing credit: Christopher Wood)

I do not deny that my heart has greatly desired this. In place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morning! Treacherous as the Sea! (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring; writing credit: Frances Walsh)

We'll play each of our treacherous trumps in one hand, and we'll do it right here! (Batman; writing credit: Bob Kane; Lorenzo Semple Jr.)

Stay close to the candles, the staircase can be treacherous. (Young Frankenstein; writing credit: Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder)

While I have fingers to grasp a sword, and eyes to see your cowardly faces, your treacherous heads will not be safe on your shoulders! (The Conqueror; writing credit: Oscar Millard)

Treacherous, cunnin', declinin' (Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'; performing artist: Michael Jackson)

We're a treacherous trio, we're the serious joint! ("Rapper's Delight"; performing artist: Sugarhill Gang)

A Treacherous Rival (1922)

The Treacherous Policeman (1909)

Treacherous Crossing (1992)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• A Treacherous Seduction (reference)

• On Treacherous Ground: Secret Stories of the West (reference)

• The Life, Times, and Treacherous Death of Jesse James (Legends of the West) (reference)

• Treacherous Traitors (Profiles (Minneapolis, Minn.).) (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Treacherous (reference)

• Treacherous Crossing (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Treacherous Too! A History Of The Neville Brothers, Vol. 2 (1955-1987) (reference)

• Treacherous Turn One (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

The fatal Notes neglected fall, No creature heeds the treacherous call, For all those goodly Strawn Baits Pall.

The guide made a negative sign of the head, probably treacherous.

For they are cunning, malicious, treacherous, and revengeful.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Economic History

Bermuda

Bermuda was discovered in 1503 by a Spanish explorer, Juan de Bermudez, who made no attempt to land because of the treacherous reef surrounding the uninhabited islands. (references)

Travel

Ukraine

Travel between cities at night and in winter can be particularly treacherous. (references)

Cote D'ivoire

The ocean beaches near Abidjan are extremely dangerous because of treacherous surf and rip tides. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expression using "treacherous": treacherous murder. Additional references.

Albanian

tradhtar (betrayer, deceitful, disloyal, Judas, Quisling, rat, recreant, renegade, traitor, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous, turnback), i pabesë (backhand, disloyal, faithless, false-hearted, perfidious, punic, sacrilegious, traitorous, unfaithful, viperous). (various references)

Arabic 

‏غادر (blow, depart, disloyal, false, feline, get carried away, go, hop, insidious, jump, leave, pop off, quit, ratty, retire, scram, skip, snaky, sneak, snide, start, traitorous), ‏غرار (specious), ‏خائن (betrayer, deceiver, disloyal, faithless, false, perfidious, renegade, traitor, traitorous, treasonable, unfaithful, unreliable, untrue). (various references)

Bulgarian 

криещ опасности (tricky), вероломен (disloyal, faithless, perfidious, perjured, perjurious, serpentine), несигурен (build on sand, chancy, dangerous, disputable, dubious, equivocal, faltering, halting, insecure, irresolute, long, pendulous, precarious, problematic, queasy, risky, rocky, shaky, slippy, suspensive, tentative, top heavy, tottery, uncertain, uneasy, unreliable, unresolved, unsafe, unsettled, unsound, unsteady, unsure, untrustworthy, variable, versatile, wonky), неверен (disloyal, faithless, false, false-hearted, inconstant, incorrect, mendacious, mock, perfidious, unfaithful, untrue, wrongful). (various references)

Chinese 

诡谲. (various references)

Czech

zrádný (deceitful, false, guileful, perfidious, shifty, telltale, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous), nespolehlivý (hit and run, hit or miss, incalculable, uncertain, unreliable, unsafe, untrustworthy). (various references)

Dutch

trouweloos (unfaithful), dubbelhartig (false). (various references)

Esperanto

perfidema, perfida. (various references)

Faeroese

svikafullur, ótrúgvur (unfaithful). (various references)

Farsi 

خیانتکار (Conspirator, Traitor), خیانت امیز (Traitorous, Treasonable(Noius)), خاءنانه (Insidious, Traitorous, Treasonable(Noius)), خاءن (Renegade, Traitor, Traitorous, Untrue). (various references)

Finnish

salakavala (insidious), petollinen (deceitful, deceptive, delusive, false, fraudulent), kavala (deceitful, false, insidious, underhand). (various references)

French

traître (traitor, traitorous). (various references)

Frisian

ferriederlik. (various references)

German

verräterisch (perfidious, telling, telltale, traitorous, treacherously, treasonable, treasonably), treulos (disloyal, disloyally, faithless, false, falsely, perfidious, perfidiously, traitorous, unfaithful), hinterlistig (artful, crafty, cunning, deceitful, insidious, malicious, perfidious, wily), heimtückisch (catty, dastardly, insidious, insidiously, malicious, maliciously, malignant, mischievous, nasty, perfidious, perfidiously, sneakily, sneaky, vicious, wicked). (various references)

Greek 

προδοτικόσ (traitorous, treasonable, treasonous), επίβουλοσ (insidious), δόλιοσ (deceitful, dishonest, fraudulent, guileful, lurking, sly, snaky, trappy, two faced, underhand, underhanded, wily). (various references)

Hebrew 

בו�'�"� י (insidious, perfidious, traitorous, unfaithful), בו�'�" (betrayer, disloyal, faithless, renegade, traitor, turncoat, unfaithful). (various references)

Hungarian

áruló (betrayer, delator, denunciator, disloyal, judas, perfidious, rat, snitcher, squealer, traitor, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous). (various references)

Italian

traditore (betrayer, traitor, traitorous), sleale (disloyal, faithless, unequable, unequably, unfair, unfairly, unright), pericoloso (breakneck, dangerous, hazarding, hazardous, nasty, perilous, risky, unsafe, vicious), infido. (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

陰険 (tricky, wily), 悪虐無�" (heinous), 佞姦 (perverse, wicked), 佞奸 (perverse, wicked). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ねいか�" (perverse, wicked), い�"け�" (appearance and disappearance, audience, interview, tricky, wily), あくぎゃくむどう (atrocity, heinous, treachery, treason). (various references)

Korean 

믿을 수 없�" (incredible, unbelievable). (various references)

Manx

traitooragh (traitorous, treasonable), neuhreisteilagh (perfidious, unhopeful), kialgagh (calculated, calculating, circumventory, crafty, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, fallacious, fly, guileful, illusive, insidious, perfidious, seditious, tricky, wily), foalsey (affected, bogus, counterfeit, dud, dummy, ersatz, fallacious, false, feigned, forged, hollow, hollow of victory, hypocritical, perfidious, pinchbeck, sham, spurious, substitute, suppositious, tinsel, two-faced, wrong, wrong as note). (various references)

Papiamen

traidó. (various references)

Pig Latin

eacheroustray

Portuguese

traiçoeiro (base-minded, cattish, deceitful, double-hearted, insidious, slippery, slippy, snaky, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous, vulpine), pérfido (diplomatic, insidious, slippery, slippy, traitorous, treasonous). (various references)

Romanian

trãdãtor (foul, perfidious, Ratter, recreant, renegade, traitor, traitorous, turncoat), prefãcut (affected, assumed, cattish, false, falsified, forged, guileful, histrionic, hollow-hearted, hypocritical, insidious, mock, panting, pecksniffian, pharisaical, pharisee, pretender, seeming, sham, squeamish), perfid (false, false-hearted, guileful, perfidious, serpentine, shifty, snaky), mişelesc (cowardly, dastardly), fals (apparent, artificial, bad, base, bogus, cant, colourable, counterfeit, deceitful, double dealing, dud, dummy, erroneous, erroneously, error, factitious, fake, false, falsehood, feigned, flash, forged, forgery, fraud, glossy, hollow, hollow-hearted, imitation, imposture, insincere, lying, mendacious, mistaken, mock, painted, phony, plugged, reprobate, sham, spurious, sugary, tinsel, trumpery, truthless, two faced, unnatural, unnaturally, untrue, wrong, wrongfully), fãţarnic (ambidexter, dissembler, dissembling, double, double-tongued, false, hypocrite, hypocritical, smooth-faced). (various references)

Russian 

предательский (disloyal, perfidious, recreant, renegade, serpentine, traitorous, trappy, treasonable, treasonous). (various references)

Scottish

foilleil (deceitful, fraudulent), cealgach (hypocritical). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

varljiv (fallacious, false, illusive, loaded, meretricious, misleading, specious, tricky), podmukao (insidious, knavish, perfidious, trappy, underhand), opasan (adventurous, breakneck, dangerous, girded, hazardous, parlous, perilous, pernicious, tight, ugly, uncanny, unsafe, venturous, vicious), izdajnički (telltale, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous). (various references)

Spanish

traicionero (traitorous). (various references)

Swedish

förrädisk (insidious, traitorous, treasonable, treasonous), trolös (disloyal, faithless, jilt, perfidious, recreant, unfaithful). (various references)

Turkish

kalleş (heel, piker, prick, rat), hain (betrayer, cattish, catty, deceitful, dingo, disloyal, faithless, false, false-hearted, foul, insidious, Judas, malicious, nefarious, perfidious, rat, Ratter, renegade, scoundrel, scoundrelly, serpent, snaky, traitor, traitorous, ungrateful, villain, viperish, viperous, wicked), güvenilmez (beyond belief, discredited, elusive, elusory, faithless, insecure, irresponsible, precarious, shifty, slippery, suspicious, uncertain, unfaithful, unreliable, unsound, unstable, unsteady, untrustable, untrustworthy, whacky), aldatıcı (baffling, beguiling, catchy, colorable, colored, coloured, deceptive, delusive, devious, dishonest, double dealing, elusory, fake, fallacious, googly, hype, illusive, illusory, indirect, specious, trickish, tricksy, tricky). (various references)

Ukrainian

віроломний (deceitful, faithless, guileful, perfidious, trustless), ненадійний (chancy, faithless, fallible, incalculable, insecure, precarious, questionable, ramshackle, shifty, tickle, trustless, truthless, unassured, unreliable, unsafe, unsure, untrustworthy, wacky, whacky), підступний (astute, cattish, crafty, cunning, dastardly, guileful, insidious, jesuitic, jesuitical, serpentine, skittish, sly, vulpine, wily, witty). (various references)

Vietnamese 

xảo trá (captious, crafty, cunning, trickish), phản bội (perfidious, traitorous), phụ bạc, dối trá (deceiful, deceptive, double-tongued, fallacious, false-hearted, forked), bội bạc không tin được. (various references)

Welsh

bradwrus (traitorous). (various references)

ambigua, ambiguum, bilingue, bilinguem, bilingues, bilinguis, fallacem, fallacia, fallax, infidelem, infideles, infideli, infidelibus, infidelis, infidelium, perfidiosus, stelio, stilio. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "treacherous": treacherously, treacherousness, treacherousnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Treacherous" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: teacherous, trecherous. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: chartreuse, outreaches, retouchers.

-2 letters: creatures, heartsore, horserace, orchestra, racehorse, retoucher, retouches, torcheres.

-3 letters: austerer, carouser, caterers, cathouse, charters, cheaters, coherers, courters, creators, creature, curators, ecraseur, erectors, hectares, horsecar, outhears, outraces, outreach, reachers, reactors, rearouse, recharts, recheats, recourse, recrates, reroutes, research, resource, retraces, scouther, searcher, secateur, secretor, soutache, teachers, teahouse, terraces, thoraces, torchere, touchers.

+2 letters: creaturehoods, treacherously.

+3 letters: countercharges, countermarches, counterthreats.

+4 letters: treacherousness.

+5 letters: microearthquakes, nonarchitectures, turbomachineries.