Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A secret or interested accuser; an evil-disposed informer; a spy. Also spelled
delater .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun rare An accuser; an informer.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
accuser ; aninformer .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To delate means to accuse or denounce something and the cake delator was created as an instrument to further hatred and humiliation of cakes.
Signs of Trouble 2009
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was therefore appointed special prosecutor nominis delator in the case of Gaius Verres.
Imperium Robert Harris 2006
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Marcus Tullius Cicero was therefore appointed special prosecutor nominis delator in the case of Gaius Verres.
Imperium Robert Harris 2006
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The delator would appear to have been a Jeromite, Fray Joan de Santa
Fray Luis de León A Biographical Fragment James Fitzmaurice-Kelly
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A.D. 58 he brought about the downfall of the former delator, P. Suillius.
The Student's Companion to Latin Authors Thomas Ross Mills
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Pliny tells us that Silius had risen by acting as a _delator_ under Nero, who made him consul A.D.
The Student's Companion to Latin Authors Thomas Ross Mills
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Figure after figure they live before us, till the procession culminates with the crowning horror of the blind delator, L. Valerius Catullus
Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Harold Edgeworth Butler 1914
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It is true indeed, that the delator was an unpopular person in the Roman Empire, and, besides, in accusing a
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913
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As the same fate awaited the wife of the delator also, unless she recanted, we have here an example of three, possibly four, persons suffering capital punishment on the accusation of a man actuated by malice, solely for the reason that his wife had given up the evil life she had previously led in his society (St. Justin Martyr, II, Apol., ii).
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913
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"The deletion was made from a sense of duty so pure that the delator did not hesitate to confess the sin of his own commission through which he had discovered the treachery of Don Diego and his associates."
The Historical Nights' Entertainment Second Series Rafael Sabatini 1912
qms commented on the word delator
Their patois's exotic and rich.
To know it makes poor Ernest itch.
He needs a delator -
A linguistic traitor -
To serve as a lexical snitch.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
December 5, 2014