Word.ws English Dictionary

turn traitor

turn traitor verb: to become a traitor, by betraying a person, group, or one's country.

Verb

turn traitor (third-person singular simple present turns traitor, present participle turning traitor, simple past and past participle turned traitor)

  1. To become a traitor, by betraying a person, group, or one's country.
    • For a time, it was the only Royalist stronghold between London and Exeter, but it fell at last when a member of the garrison turned traitor and admitted the Parliamentary besiegers who destroyed it with gunpowder.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 134, about Corfe Castle

Forms of turn traitor

third-person singular presentturns traitor
present participleturning traitor
past participleturned traitor
pastturned traitor

Questions about turn traitor

What does turn traitor mean?
Turn traitor means to become a traitor, by betraying a person, group, or one's country.
What part of speech is turn traitor?
Turn traitor is a verb.
What is the past tense of turn traitor?
The past tense of turn traitor is turned traitor.

Words near turn traitor in the dictionary

  1. turn to account
  2. turn to custard
  3. turn to dust
  4. turn to good account
  5. turn together
  6. turn traitor
  7. turn tricks
  8. turn Turk
  9. turn turtle
  10. turn two
  11. turn under

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: turn traitor (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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