disloyal

comparative more disloyal · superlative most disloyal

1. Not loyal, without loyalty.

   […] Norway himself, With terrible numbers, Assisted by that most disloyal traitor The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   4 more examples

   1536, Anne Boleyn, letter addressed to Henry VIII from the Tower of London, cited in Edward Herbert, The Life and Raigne of King Henry VIII, London: Thomas Whitaker, 1649, p. 383, Good your Grace, let not any light fancy, or bad Counsel of mine enemies withdraw your Princely favour from me; neither let that stain, that unworthy stain of a disloyall heart towards your good Grace, ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutifull Wife, and the Infant Princesse your daughter […]

   He told his mother he was glad to be back again. He sometimes felt as if it were disloyal to her for him to be so happy with Mrs. Erlich.

   1923, Willa Cather, One of Ours, Book One, Chapter 15

   Embarrassed about leaving him, I asked him to accompany me. It would have been disloyal to let him broil in the heat of Cairo, while I went off to a summer resort.

   1998, Tawfiq al-Hakim, “My Donkey and Hypocrisy”, in William Maynard Hutchins, transl., In the Tavern of Life and Other Stories, Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, page 65

   “In my opinion, they want us to lose,” Mr. Trump said, accusing the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, and its secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who is also a Republican, of being disloyal and trying to make life difficult for him.

   2024 August 4, Neil Vigdor, “Trump Says Georgia’s Governor Is Hampering His Efforts to Win There”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: faithless, perfidious, treacherous, unfaithful, unloyal, recreant, booky, dastardly