betrayed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of betray.

   The spy betrayed his country for a suitcase of cash.

   He was betrayed by the one person he trusted completely.

   Note

   One regular -ed form does double duty. It serves the simple past (she betrayed him) and the perfect and passive (she has betrayed him, he was betrayed). It also carries the verb's gentler meaning of revealing something without intending to, where no one is deceived at all. A tremor or a blush can give away a feeling, and nobody is being treacherous.

   Her trembling hands betrayed her nervousness.

   The catch in his voice betrayed how much he still cared.

2. 2
   adjective

   Feeling the deep hurt that comes from being deceived or abandoned by someone trusted.

   Like a soldier who discovers the ally beside him has been working for the enemy all along.

   The betrayed employees demanded answers from the executives who had lied to them.

   She felt utterly betrayed by the people she had counted on for years.

   Similarcheated

   Note

   Unlike the bare participle, this adjective can be graded: someone can feel more betrayed, or most betrayed, and it sits naturally after feel and with intensifiers such as utterly or deeply. Where the past participle reports the act (he was betrayed by a friend), the adjective names the lasting state of the person wronged: the betrayed employees, a betrayed public.

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