How to Use turncoat in a Sentence

turncoat

noun
  • 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
  • Pantera was the prize sought by Maduro and offered by the turncoats.
    — Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025
  • With a turncoat on the loose among the agents, time is of the essence to root out the loose cannon before they, ahem, fire.
    — Charlie Mason, TVLine, 16 Sep. 2024
  • 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
  • Hanssen faced the death penalty when he was arrested thanks to another turncoat.
    — Ben Brasch, Washington Post, 5 June 2023
  • The day will come to settle scores with the turncoats for their actions, Cacique vowed in the interview.
    — Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025
  • This is less a chant and more a fireworks show celebrating the permanent expungement of all turncoats and pests.
    — Stephen Kearse, Vulture, 4 Feb. 2025
  • The turncoat had disclosed the names of Russians who had been helping the CIA.
    — Fox News, 19 May 2018
  • Mafia historians call him one of the most important turncoats ever to testify against the mob.
    — Kathy Tulumello, azcentral, 6 Dec. 2019
  • 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
  • Speaking of potential turncoats, how long before Spencer goes full Savior?
    — Jeremy Egner, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2016
  • 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
  • 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
  • For a long time, Serena swayed back and forth between cruel accomplice and potential turncoat.
    — Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 26 May 2021
  • The turncoats were believed to be on the second vessel carrying the Americans and 46 people in all.
    — Antonio Maria Delgado, Miami Herald, 7 Nov. 2025
  • 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
  • Rey is a possible candidate, as is Finn, the Stormtrooper turncoat played by John Boyega.
    — Brett Weiss, star-telegram, 14 Dec. 2017
  • 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
  • What starts as an innocent father/daughter college visit takes a shocking turn when Tony brutally strangles a Mob turncoat.
    — Dan Snierson, Entertainment Weekly, 27 Dec. 2025
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • Some of you certainly want Cowboy-loving turncoat Isaac shipped off to Axios Dallas, pronto.
    — Isaac Avilucea, Axios, 27 Nov. 2024
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • President Abraham Lincoln called on state militias at the outset of the Civil War to help in fighting Confederate turncoats to the South.
    — Alana Wise, NPR, 21 Aug. 2025
  • 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

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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