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
What punishment was severe enough for such a caitiff?
From The Curse of Koshiu A Chronicle of Old Japan by Wingfield, Lewis
The caitiff who had undersold them was in the village at that moment!
From The Woodlands Orchids by Boyle, Frederick
In the tumult of his passion and fear Wade cursed the caitiff, his own legs in the swirl of the bights, his cant-dog nipping the rope to the post and checking it short.
From King Spruce, A Novel by Day, Holman
And will any one say that he is not a miserable caitiff who sells his own divine being to that which is most godless and detestable and has no pity?
From The Five Great Philosophies of Life by Hyde, William De Witt
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.
