Meanings
plural quislers
- Synonym of quisling.
In the rumblings of mounting war sentiment, the radicals and the left-wing trade unions blended in the public imagination into a diffuse mass of pacifist quislers, immigrants of shaky loyalties, and anarchist saboteurs.
1999, Susan Ware, Forgotten Heroes2 more examples
Other potential "quislers" still at large last week include: Sweden's Sven Olav Lindholm, an Army sergeant who willingly dubs himself Sweden's Hitler; Holland's Blackshirt Anton Adrian Missert; Hungary's Greenshirt Kalman Hubay; England's Blackshirt Sir Oswald Mosley; Belgium's broom-waving Rexist Léon Degrelle and the underground pro-Nazi conspirators who agitate in Alsace-Lorraine.
1940 May 6, “Quisling”, in LIFE, volume 8, number 19, page 98The capture of the fleet would have been its delivery “to the enemy,” for France now knows and even the Vichy government knows—except Laval and a dwindling coterie of his fellow quislers—that Germany is the enemy.
1942, The Christian Century - Volume 59, page 1517Synonyms: quisling
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of quisling.
Origin
Action noun from quisle + -er, in which the verb is a back-formation of the noun quisling – originally a proper noun – construed as a gerund or present participle.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
quisler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quisler
“quisler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quisler. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quisler,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quisler.
Source: quisler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.