quisling
/ˈkwɪzlɪŋ
/noun
A traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country: [as modifier]: he had the Quisling owner of the factory arrested...
- He's undermined our ability to stand up - we'll just be seen as potential traitors and quislings.
- By which we ought to mean, the country will be in the hands of a puppet government, a government of quislings and collaborators, a government of pullovers and pushovers.
- During the 1976-83 period, operations included the assassination of police informers and perceived quislings, bank robberies and attacks on the security forces and police stations.
Synonyms
collaborator, fraternizer, colluder, sympathizer;
traitor, turncoat, betrayer, informer, back-stabber, double-crosser, double-dealer, renegade, defector, deserter, apostate, Judas, snake in the grass, fifth columnist
informal two-timer
Australian informal dog
Origin
Second World War: from the name of Major Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), the Norwegian army officer and diplomat who ruled Norway on behalf of the German occupying forces (1940–45).
A quisling is a traitor who collaborates with an enemy force occupying their country. The original quisling was Major Vidkun Quisling, an army officer who ruled Norway on behalf of the German occupying forces during the Second World War. After the war he was charged with treason and executed.