Word of the Day: February 11, 2025

What It Means

To deliver into the hands of an enemy by treachery or fraud, in violation of trust; to give up treacherously or faithlessly.

To prove faithless or treacherous to, as to a trust or one who trusts; to be false to; to deceive.

To violate the confidence of, by disclosing a secret, or that which one is bound in honor not to make known.

// Though he had lived in England for many years, a faint accent betrayed his Swedish origin.

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Betray in Context

“Jones’ sad eyes betray a pervasive pain his purposefully spare dialogue only hints at, while the perfectly cast [Josh] Brolin conveys hints of playfulness and warmth while staying true to the craggy stoicism at the character’s core.”

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Did You Know?

From Middle English betrayen, bitrayen (“to commit an act of treason against”), equivalent to be- + tray (“to betray”). Middle English bi- is from Old English be- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi- (“be-”), from Proto-Germanic *bi (“near, by”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi (“at, near”). Compare also traitor, treason, tradition. The modern sense “to disclose, discover, reveal unintentionally” is due to influence from or merger with English bewray (“to reveal, divulge”), which is similar in sound and meaning. The similarity with German betrügen, Dutch bedriegen, from Proto-West Germanic *bidreugan (“to betray, deceive”), is coincidental.