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True and constant in affection or allegiance to a person to whom one is bound by a vow, be ties of love, gratitude, or honor, as to a husband, a prince, a friend; firm in the observance of duty; loyal; of true fidelity; as, a faithful husband or servant. So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found, Among the faithless,…

Not true to allegiance, duty, or vows; perfidious; trecherous; disloyal; not of true fidelity; inconstant, as a husband or a wife. A most unnatural and faithless service. Shak.

away. (a) To lose flesh; to become lean or emaciated; to pine. (b) To renounce or desert allegiance; to revolt or rebel. (c) To renounce or desert the faith; to apostatize. "These . . . for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." Luke viii. 13.

Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject; false to promises. I to myself was false, ere thou to me. Milton.

A person belonging to or owning allegiance to a foreign country; one not native in the country or jurisdiction under consideration, or not naturalized there; an alien; a stranger. Joy is such a foreigner, So mere a stranger to my thoughts. Denham. Nor could the majesty of the English crown appear in a greater luster, e…

Faith; allegiance; fealty. [Obs.] Spenser.

liberty; -- said of the will. Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love. Milton.

ause irritant; that, if he did violate any part of his oath, the people should owe him no allegiance. Hayward.

Sovereign; independent; having authority or right to allegiance; as, a liege lord. Chaucer. She looked as grand as doomsday and as grave; And he, he reverenced his liege lady there. Tennyson.

nd, the former to protection and the securing of justice, the latter to faithful service; allegiance. [Written also ligeancy and liegance.] Chaucer.

ful government; faithful to the prince or sovereign to whom one is subject; unswerving in allegiance. Welcome, sir John ! But why come you in arms -To help King Edward in his time of storm, As every loyal subject ought to do. Shak.

ho adheres to his sovereign or to the lawful authority; especially, one who maintains his allegiance to his prince or government, and defends his cause in times of revolt or revolution.

ging to or being connected with a nation or government by nativity, character, ownership, allegiance, etc.

Not swearing allegiance; -- applied to the party in Great Britain that would not swear allegiance to William and Mary, or their successors.

One of those adherents of James II. who refused to take the oath of allegiance to William and Mary, or to their successors, after the revolution of 1688; a Jacobite.

r compensation for something received; to be indebted in the sum of; as, the subject owes allegiance; the fortunate owe assistance to the unfortunate. The one ought five hundred pence, and the other fifty. Bible (1551). A son owes help and honor to his father. Holyday.

The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed; faithlessness; teachery. The ambition and perfidy of tyrants. Macaulay. His perfidy to this sacred engagement. DeQuincey.

The rolls of deeds on parchment in which the Scottish nobility and gentry subscribed allegiance to Edward I. of England, A. D. 1296. [Also written ragman-roll.]

ence, to be faithless; to desert one party or leader for another; especially, to renounce allegiance or subjection; to rise against a government; to rebel. Our discontented counties do revolt. Shak. Plant those that have revolted in the van. Shak.

The oath of allegiance taken by Roman soldiers; hence, a sacred ceremony used to impress an obligation; a solemn oath-taking; an oath. [Obs.] I'll take the sacrament on't. Shak.