3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Caitiff \Cai"tiff\, a. [OE. caitif, cheitif captive, miserable,
OF caitif, chaitif captive, mean wretched, F. ch['e]tif,
fr L. captivus captive, fr capere to take akin to E.
heave. See {Heave}, and cf {Captive}.]
1. Captive; wretched; unfortunate. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
2. Base; wicked and mean cowardly; despicable.
Arnold had sped his caitiff flight. --W. Irving.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Caitiff \Cai"tiff\, n.
A captive; a prisoner. [Obs.]
Avarice doth tyrannize over her caitiff and slave.
--Holland.
2. A wretched or unfortunate man. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
3. A mean despicable person; one whose character meanness
and wickedness meet
Note: The deep-felt conviction of men that slavery breaks
down the moral character . . . speaks out with . . .
distinctness in the change of meaning which caitiff has
undergone signifying as it now does one of a base,
abject disposition, while there was a time when it had
nothing of this in it --Trench.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
caitiff
adj : despicably mean and cowardly
n : (archaic) a cowardly and despicable person
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