A man who built his entire administration upon demanding unctuous loyalty from his allies now finds himself wounded by their shabby betrayal. You'd have to go back to one of Spain's humpbacked Hapsburgs to find court perfidy of the variety that is currently depleting the president's power.—Jack Hitt, Mother Jones, January & February 2006The petty Robespierres on the public stage appeal to "the real America" to rise up in fury against presidential perfidies; yet in poll after poll the real America keeps telling Washington that it has gone bonkers.—David L. Kirp, Nation, 8 Mar. 1999I lived there off and on for twenty years, through graduate studies, marriage, the end of marriage, the perfidies of middle age, all the while unaware of passion.—Susan Barron, New England Monthly, October 1989
They are guilty of perfidy.
his wife's perfidy was a moment of uncharacteristic weakness
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Any time there is a crisis in Iran, the 1953 British-American coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh is dusted off as Exhibit A in the case against Western perfidy.—Bobby Ghosh, Time, 5 Mar. 2026 But the mayor’s dramatic tale of his predecessor’s fiscal fiddling was designed with a clear political agenda in mind: both to underline the magnitude of the problem and to identify the villains responsible for this perfidy.—Washington Post, 29 Jan. 2026 More recently, an al Qaeda operative and suspected mastermind behind the 2000 USS Cole bombing — in which suicide bombers sidled up alongside a US warship, waved to the sailors and then detonated explosives — was charged with perfidy, among other crimes.—Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 21 Jan. 2026 The report has raised concerns of perfidy, an act of deception by military forces.—Jenna Prestininzi, Freep.com, 13 Jan. 2026 See All Example Sentences for perfidy
Word History
Etymology
Latin perfidia, from perfidus faithless, from per- detrimental to + fides faith — more at per-, faith