Crossword clues for turncoat
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Turncoat \Turn"coat`\, n. One who forsakes his party or his principles; a renegade; an apostate; a defector to the enemy.
He is a turncoat, he was not true to his profession.
--Bunyan.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A traitor; one who turn against a previous affiliation or allegiance.
WordNet
Wikipedia
A turncoat is a person who shifts allegiance from one loyalty or ideal to another, betraying or deserting an original cause by switching to the opposing side or party. In political and social history, this is distinct from being a traitor, as the switch mostly takes place under the following circumstances:
- In groups, often driven by one or more leaders.
- When the goal that formerly motivated and benefited the person becomes (or is perceived as having become) either no longer feasible or too costly even if success is achieved.
From a military perspective, opposing armies generally wear uniforms of contrasting colors to prevent incidents of Friendly fire. Thus the term "turn-coat" indicates that an individual has changed sides and his uniform coat to one matching the color of his former enemy. For example, in the English Civil War during the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell's soldiers turned their coats inside out to match the colours of the Royal army (see Examples below).
Usage examples of "turncoat".
There were some, William Markland knew, as he regarded a crowd around the courthouse door, who were turncoats, adventuresome opportunists, and a few who were knaves, shaping their convictions to circumstance.
Roger Hartnell, still hobbling along with his cane, Gary Scholes, the frat boy turncoat.
Was China a soldier of fortune, a turncoat, or an independent warlord taking advantage f the Mozambican chaos for his own private ends?
These are only rumors, mind you, yet we must give them some credence, put forth as they are by the turncoats we keep in the midst of the Forces of Bad to observe the enemy and tell us what they are up to.
There was not a thing the city needed to learn from New York, and Richmonders would be damned before they followed any example set by the turncoat, carpetbagging city of Charlotte, which had a habit of stealing Richmond's banks and Fortune 500 companies.
Among the first of the turncoats was Loran Baird, a former naval officer, who for reasons known only to himself.
He seems to have access to every governmental e-mail address in the Commonwealth, which is one of the reasons I am sure he's an insider, a turncoat, and a troublemaker.
Sir Nigel Irvine thought the Nightingale was an embittered Russian turncoat called Anatoly Krivoi, right-hand man to the warmonger Vishnayev.
He himself would be greeted with a hefty degree of suspicion by Bahzell's fellow Horse Stealers, some of whom would regard him as a turncoat and traitor, and if he actually found himself forced to take up arms against other Bloody Swords.
Lord Thagol had matters of his own to consider, and he didn’t care about the concerns of taverners or turncoats.
Even when her own loyalty to New Crobuzon was such an odd, unsystematic thing, she could not help thinking of Johannes as a kind of turncoat.