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disloyal

disloyal

30 4.2
Not supporting or being faithful to people you should support
  • adjective
  • /dɪsˈlɔɪəl/
translation icon : desleal
  • Many German immigrants suppressed their heritage for fear of being seen as disloyal.
  • disloyal Americans
  • disloyal to the government

So this man is consistently a liar, consistently disloyal to other individuals.

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Examples

  • This is no time to be disloyal, honey.

  • Leaving one firm for another was considered disloyal, and cross-pollination of ideas was stifled.

    Academic text (2011)
  • But I felt so disloyal to the life I had lived.

  • That was a very disloyal thing you did to your mother.

  • I was disloyal to you.

  • No matter what I do, I feel like I'm being disloyal to someone.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Nobody wants to be disloyal or to bring about more disunity.

  • In every city and province, lists of the disloyal have been compiled.

  • As far as I was concerned, she was disloyal, unsupportive in this time of crisis, and irrationally suspicious.

    Academic text (2009)
  • She felt disloyal for not supporting her friend during a difficult time.

Synonyms

treasonous
vsdisloyal
  • Formal
20 8.5

Helping enemies harm your country

is a broad lack of loyalty, not necessarily criminal or against the state
traitorous
vsdisloyal
18 8.3

Acting secretly to harm people who trust them

is general disloyalty that may not be as actively treacherous
faithless
vsdisloyal
12 5.6

Not loyal and likely to betray people who trust them

is a general lack of loyalty without implying active betrayal
unfaithful
vsdisloyal
2 3.8

Not loyal to a job, promise, or duty

is broader, covering loyalty to people, groups, principles, or country

Antonyms

505 1.0

Always supporting a person or group, especially in hard times

104 1.8

Loyal and steady in support of a person, group, or idea

How Loyal

devoted
80 3.4
faithful
104 1.8
loyal
505 1.0
disloyal
30 4.2
treacherous
38 7.1

Surface Forms

disloyal positive

Morphology

disloyal = loyal (transparent) = dis + loyal

The prefix 'dis-' straightforwardly negates 'loyal', yielding the meaning 'not loyal'.

Etymology

The word disloyal combines the prefix dis- meaning 'not' and loyal meaning 'true to someone'. So disloyal literally means 'not true to someone', which is why we use it for people who do not support or stay faithful to a person, group, or idea.