Meaning & use

betray

verb·Academic

To be disloyal to someone who trusted you, or to reveal something unintentionally.

See it in a sentence

He felt his best friend had betrayed him by sharing the secret.

Her trembling hands betrayed how nervous she really was during the interview.

A note on using this word

Betray can describe disloyalty toward a person or the unintentional revealing of a hidden feeling or fact.

Words with a similar meaning

deceivedouble-crossreveal

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

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