PERFIDY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does perfidy mean? 

• PERFIDY (noun)
  The noun PERFIDY has 2 senses:

1. betrayal of a trust

2. an act of deliberate betrayal

  Familiarity information: PERFIDY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERFIDY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Betrayal of a trust

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

perfidiousness; perfidy; treachery

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

disloyalty (the quality of being disloyal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "perfidy"):

insidiousness (the quality of being designed to entrap)

Derivation:

perfidious (tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An act of deliberate betrayal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

betrayal; perfidy; treachery; treason

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

dishonesty; knavery (lack of honesty; acts of lying or cheating or stealing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "perfidy"):

double-crossing; double cross (an act of betrayal)

sellout (a betrayal of one's principles principles, country, cause, etc.)

Derivation:

perfidious (tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans)

 Context examples 

She told me that her seducer had burst out a-laughing when she had reproached him for his perfidy, and I swore to her that his heart’s blood should pay me for that laugh.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I stood amazed at the revelation of all this perfidy, looking at Miss Mowcher as she walked up and down the kitchen until she was out of breath: when she sat upon the fender again, and, drying her face with her handkerchief, shook her head for a long time, without otherwise moving, and without breaking silence.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was the strain of a forsaken lady, who, after bewailing the perfidy of her lover, calls pride to her aid; desires her attendant to deck her in her brightest jewels and richest robes, and resolves to meet the false one that night at a ball, and prove to him, by the gaiety of her demeanour, how little his desertion has affected her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In my love-lorn condition, my appetite languished; and I was glad of it, for I felt as though it would have been an act of perfidy towards Dora to have a natural relish for my dinner.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)