subs. (colloquial).—1. A traitor. JUDAS-COLORED = red. [From the tradition that Judas had red hair].
c. 1384. WYCLIF, Of Prelates (in F. D. Matthew’s, The English Works of Wyclif Hitherto Unprinted, ch. v.). & þus þe lord or the lady hireþ costly a fals IUDAS to his confessour.
1597–8. MUNDAY, The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington, ii. 1 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, viii. 131].
| John. Now, by the rood, thou liest. Warman himself, | |
| That creeping JUDAS, joy’d, and told it me. |
1599. JONSON, Every Man out of his Humour, iv. 1. Fal. Now, out upon thee, JUDAS! canst thou not be content to backbite thy friend, but thou must betray him.
1600. SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It, iii. 4. Ros. His very hair is of the dissembling colour. Cel. Something browner than JUDAS’S.
1602. DEKKER, The Honest Whore, Pt. II, in Wks. (1873), ii. 116. Thou villaine, curb thy tongue, thou art a JUDAS, to sell thy master’s name to slander thus.
1673. DRYDEN, Amboyna [in Wks. i. 561 (1701)]. Beam. I do not like his Oath, there’s Treachery in that JUDAS-colour’d Beard.
1860. THACKERAY, The Four Georges (George I.). We think within ourselves, O you unfathomable schemer! O you warrior invincible! O you beautiful smiling JUDAS! What master would you not kiss or betray?
2. See JUDAS-HOLE.
