Word.ws English Dictionary

Delilah

UK/dɪˈlaɪlə/

Delilah proper noun: the mistress of Samson who betrayed him to the Philistines.

Proper noun

Delilah

  1. The mistress of Samson who betrayed him to the Philistines.
    • And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee.Judges 16:6
  2. A female given name from Hebrew of Biblical origin.
    • "Leila!" she said enigmatically. "Have you seen her?" / "I went to her flat last week with Dad—he likes her." / "Delilah is her real name, you know. All men like her. And Captain Fort is her lover."1919 October, John Galsworthy, chapter I, in Saint’s Progress, London: William Heinemann, published December 1919, →OCLC, part III, 1 §, page 220

Noun

Delilah (plural Delilahs)

  1. A beautiful, cunning and treacherous woman; a femme fatale.
    • He shall burst the bands of this Delilah, as Sampson burst the two new cords with which the Philistines had bound him, and shall slaughter the infidels, even heaps upon heaps. But concerning this foul witch, who hath flung her enchantments over a brother of the Holy Temple, assuredly she shall die...1820, Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
    • Down with this Delilah! Avaunt, O Circe, giver of poisonous feeds. To your natural haunts, ye gentlemen of the press! if bachelors, frequent your taverns, and be content.1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, “The Fashionable Authoress”, in The Works of William Makepeace Thackeray, volume 9, Boston: James R. Osgood & Company, published 1872, pages 341–342
    Synonyms:
    vamp
  2. A libertine; a harlot; a woman of loose morals.
    • About twenty-three years ago the town talked about Richepin having deserted hearth and home, wife and child, to devote himself to a Delilah in the person of a famous actress.1908 March 11, “Notes from Paris”, in Truth, page 168
    Synonyms:
    promiscuous woman

Synonyms of Delilah

  • vamp
  • promiscuous woman

Forms of Delilah

pluralDelilahs

Origin of Delilah

Borrowed from Hebrew דְּלִילָה (d'līla, “[she who] weakened”).

Questions about Delilah

What does Delilah mean?
Delilah means the mistress of Samson who betrayed him to the Philistines.
What part of speech is Delilah?
Delilah can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Delilah?
Delilah is pronounced /dɪˈlaɪlə/ (UK).

Words near Delilah in the dictionary

  1. deligotyping
  2. Delikat
  3. delikatessen
  4. delikatessens
  5. Delila
  6. Delilah
  7. Delilahs
  8. DeLillo
  9. DeLillos
  10. delimb
  11. delimbed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Delilah (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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