How to Use turncoat in a Sentence

turncoat

noun
Definition of turncoatnext
Synonyms for turncoatnext
  • There’s a turncoat in MI6 who’s out to expose the Charter.
    — Kaely Monahan, The Arizona Republic, 11 Aug. 2023
  • The turncoat had disclosed the names of Russians who had been helping the CIA.
    — Fox News, 19 May 2018
  • Tests on the box were supposed to help the agency detect turncoats in their midst.
    — Drew Kann, CNN, 28 Sep. 2017
  • Suffice it to say that things don’t turn out too well for turncoat Fredo.
    — Forbes, 11 Jan. 2023
  • He was also convicted of the murder of a Mafia turncoat’s young son.
    — Landon Mion, Fox News, 16 Jan. 2023
  • My Twitter account blew up with people calling me a traitor, a turncoat, and worse.
    — Sen. Tim Scott | Fox News, Fox News, 4 Aug. 2022
  • Twain, a beloved icon to decades of readers, appears to have been guilty of this same turncoat behavior with his nephew, Charles Webster, in 1888.
    — Marie Lavendier, courant.com, 29 Apr. 2018
  • Instead, Trump and his allies turned on Bolton with a fury, calling the longtime party stalwart a deep-state tool, a turncoat and worse.
    — Chris Megerian, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Feb. 2020
  • Hanssen faced the death penalty when he was arrested thanks to another turncoat.
    — Ben Brasch, Washington Post, 5 June 2023
  • Rather than a defeat for Madrid, Mbappé’s decision has been cast as that of a mercenary and a traitor, a turncoat who gave his word to Pérez and then betrayed him.
    — New York Times, 27 May 2022
  • The turncoats were mainly members of the Freedom Caucus — or Fleadom Caucus, as some now call those pesky members.
    — Andrew Malcolm, San Francisco Chronicle, 22 May 2018
  • Rey is a possible candidate, as is Finn, the Stormtrooper turncoat played by John Boyega.
    — Brett Weiss, star-telegram, 14 Dec. 2017
  • Mafia historians call him one of the most important turncoats ever to testify against the mob.
    — Kathy Tulumello, azcentral, 6 Dec. 2019
  • He was held in a unit known to provide a safe haven for gang dropouts, mob turncoats and other inmates likely to be preyed upon at other facilities.
    — Rich Schapiro, NBC News, 30 Oct. 2019
  • Other grisly crimes he was convicted of is the murder of a Mafia turncoat’s young son, who was abducted and strangled before his body was dissolved in a vat of acid.
    — Time, 16 Jan. 2023
  • Such a breach of trust would be almost as bad as a turncoat anti-Biden mole seeking to resist presidential directives.
    — Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Aug. 2022
  • Speaking of potential turncoats, how long before Spencer goes full Savior?
    — Jeremy Egner, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2016
  • Will there be a turncoat—Mark Meadows, perhaps?—to provide revelations from inside Trump’s fevered quest to stay in office after the voters had spoken?
    — Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 20 July 2023
  • Rivals questioned his credentials and reviled him as a turncoat who ratted out his comrades during a stint in a U.S. military prison.
    — Joby Warrick and Souad Mekhennet, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Feb. 2022
  • Once a member of the society herself, the turncoat has since made off with the eponymous Blue Blade, a powerful and magical object through which time travel is possible.
    — Juliet Bennett Rylah, Los Angeles Magazine, 22 June 2018
  • In fact, Crofoot and Gilby found that for every extra group member, the odds that any individual will become a turncoat go up by 25 percent!
    — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 27 Dec. 2011
  • For a long time, Serena swayed back and forth between cruel accomplice and potential turncoat.
    — Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 26 May 2021
  • Selling off its gun brands could be seen as turncoat compromise by Second Amendment absolutists (see what happened to Yeti last week). Boycotts of those brands by that crowd could follow.
    — Wes Siler, Outside Online, 1 May 2018
  • In 1992, Gravano, who was the underboss and known for his unrelenting ferocity in any fight, went from one of the most powerful figures in the New York mafia to its most infamous turncoat.
    — Anna Perczak, ABC News, 27 Jan. 2022
  • After the mercurial entrepreneur then changed his mind, Dorsey was there to support Musk’s unsolicited takeover bid for the company, prompting calls that Dorsey was a turncoat who’d stabbed the board in the back.
    — Bychristiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 10 Feb. 2023
  • After all, hardly a news cycle goes by these days without at least one dynastic turncoat or class defector breaking ranks.
    — Horacio Silva, Town & Country, 4 Aug. 2020
  • But Lundergan's defense lawyers slammed Hurst as a turncoat for turning on his former mentor to avoid prosecution.
    — Phillip M. Bailey, The Courier-Journal, 21 Feb. 2020
  • At higher levels, players can target civilian spies, turncoat celebrities who support the junta and coup leaders.
    — New York Times, 20 July 2022
  • Ames, the most notorious turncoat in CIA history, was arrested in 1994.
    — Neil A. Lewis, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2019
  • Swords, axes, darts, clubs, feet and fists fly as Xin beats assorted robbers, assassins, soldiers and turncoat generals.
    — Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'turncoat.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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