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punic

Someone who's punic is likely to betray you. You could describe your brother as punic if he promises to keep a secret and then immediately tells it to all of his friends at school.

A punic person is treacherous or two-faced, unlikely to be loyal. You risk being called punic if you're nice to your friend but gossip about her behind her back. The adjective punic is sometimes capitalized, and in that case it means "of or relating to Carthage," which was a famous ancient empire and is still a city in Tunisia today. Because the ancient Romans thought the Carthaginians were traitorous and unreliable, punic came to also have this meaning.

Definitions of punic
  1. adjective
    tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans
    synonyms: perfidious, treacherous
    unfaithful
    not true to duty or obligation or promises
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