two-faced
/'tu:'feist/
Học thuậtThân thiện
A person with a two-faced nature smiles at a colleague while secretly planning to undermine them.
Definition
- Adjective:
- Deceitful, hypocritical: Describes a person who says one thing but believes or does another, often pretending to have feelings or opinions they do not truly hold.
- Having two contrasting aspects or characters: Literally having two faces, often used metaphorically to describe duplicity.
Usage and Examples
- Adjective:
- I don't trust him; he's two-faced and tells different stories to different people.
- Her two-faced behavior was revealed when she agreed with me but then criticized my idea to our boss.
Advanced Usage
- "to be two-faced": To habitually act in a deceitful or hypocritical manner.
- You can't rely on someone who is known to be two-faced.
Variants and Related Words
- Double-dealing (adj/n): Involved in or characterized by deceitful behavior.
- He was accused of double-dealing in the negotiations.
- Duplicitous (adj): Deceitful, involving duplicity.
- The spy led a duplicitous life.
- Hypocritical (adj): Behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.
- It was hypocritical of him to preach about honesty while lying.
Synonyms
- Deceitful: Guilty of or involving deceit; deceiving or misleading others.
- Insincere: Not expressing genuine feelings.
- False: Not according with truth or fact; incorrect, or deliberately meant to deceive.
Related Idioms and Phrases
- To speak with a forked tongue: To lie or say things that are not true, similar in meaning to being two-faced.
- Be careful negotiating with them; they are known to speak with a forked tongue.
- To wear two hats: To have two different roles or jobs. (Note: This idiom is about roles, not deceit, and is included here to contrast with the deceptive nature of "two-faced").
- In our small company, the manager often has to wear two hats.
A person with a two-faced nature smiles at a colleague while secretly planning to undermine them.
Adjective
- having two faces--one looking to the future and one to the past
- Janus the two-faced god
- marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another
- she was a deceitful scheming little thing- Israel Zangwill
- a double-dealing double agent
- a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer- W.M.Thackeray