caitiff
Americannoun
adjective
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of caitiff
1250–1300; Middle English caitif < Anglo-French < Latin captīvus captive
Vocabulary lists containing caitiff
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.
If a celebrated classroom caitiff like Peck's Bad Boy or Huckleberry Finn were to cut his swath through a U. S. school today, he would probably get off with a restrained scolding.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Commander-in-chief of the Body-Guard was spokesman on behalf of the caitiff.
From The Highlands of Ethiopia by Harris, William Cornwallis
Still single and free? or had she yielded to maternal solicitation, and become the wife of the vile caitiff after all?
From Osceola the Seminole The Red Fawn of the Flower Land by Reid, Mayne
O noble gracious English tongue Whose fibers we so sadly twist, For caitiff measures he has sung Have pardon on the journalist.
From Chimneysmoke by Morley, Christopher
I heard the sword-play from the glen yonder, and soon knew the voice of that black caitiff.
From Cedric, the Forester by Marshall, Bernard Gay
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.
