CAITIFF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does caitiff mean? 

• CAITIFF (noun)
  The noun CAITIFF has 1 sense:

1. a cowardly and despicable person

  Familiarity information: CAITIFF used as a noun is very rare.

• CAITIFF (adjective)
  The adjective CAITIFF has 1 sense:

1. despicably mean and cowardly

  Familiarity information: CAITIFF used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAITIFF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A cowardly and despicable person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("caitiff" is a kind of...):

cur (a cowardly and despicable person)

Domain usage:

archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)

Derivation:

caitiff (despicably mean and cowardly)

• CAITIFF (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Despicably mean and cowardly

Similar:

cowardly; fearful (lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted)

Derivation:

caitiff (a cowardly and despicable person)

 Context examples 

Sir William Felton, you are well mounted, gallop after the caitiff, I pray you.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What man would be so caitiff and thrall as to fail you at your need?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet what assurance have we, said the prince, that this is not some varlet masquerading in his master's harness, or some caitiff knight, the very touch of whose lance might bring infamy upon an honorable gentleman?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By St. Paul, there are men so caitiff that they think more of a scrivener's pen than of their lady's smile, and do their devoir in hopes that they may fill a line in a chronicle or make a tag to a jongleur's romance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By your dress you should be one of those cursed clerks who overrun the land like vile rats, poking and prying into other men's concerns, too caitiff to fight and too lazy to work.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)