betray
/bɪˈtɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.42 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To deliver into the hands of an enemy by treachery or fraud, in violation of trust; to give up treacherously or faithlessly.
Transitive verb
verb
To prove faithless or treacherous to, as to a trust or one who trusts; to be false to; to deceive.
Transitive verb
verb
To violate the confidence of, by disclosing a secret, or that which one is bound in honor not to make known.
Transitive verb
verb
To disclose or indicate, for example something which prudence would conceal; to reveal unintentionally.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "An officer betrayed the city."
- "He betrayed his own sister to the secret police."
- "to betray a person or a cause"
- "Quresh betrayed Sunil to marry Nuzhat."
- "My eyes have been betraying me since I turned sixty."
- "I maruell I heare no nevves of Dromio, either hee ſlackes the matter, or betrayes his maiſter, I dare not motion anie thing to Stellio, till I knovve vvhat my boy hath don; Ile hunt him out, if the loiterſacke be gone ſpringing into a tauerne, Ile fetch him reeling out."
Etymology
From Middle English betrayen, bitrayen (“to commit an act of treason against”), equivalent to be- + tray (“to betray”). Middle English bi- is from Old English be- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near, by”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at, near”). Compare also traitor, treason, tradition. The modern sense “to disclose, discover, reveal unintentionally” is due to influence from or merger with English bewray (“to reveal, divulge”), which is similar in sound and meaning. The similarity with German betrügen, Dutch bedriegen, from Proto-West Germanic *bidreugan (“to betray, deceive”), is coincidental.