Cai"tiff (?), a. [OE. caitif, cheitif, captive, miserable, OF. caitif, chaitif, captive, mean, wretched, F. ch'etif, fr. L. captivus captive, fr. capere to take, akin to E. heave. See Heave, and cf. Captive.]
1.
Captive; wretched; unfortunate.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
2.
Base; wicked and mean; cowardly; despicable.
Arnold had sped his caitiff flight.
W. Irving.
© Webster 1913.
Cai"tiff, n.
A captive; a prisoner.
[Obs.]
Avarice doth tyrannize over her caitiff and slave.
Holland.
2.
A wretched or unfortunate man.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
3.
A mean, despicable person; one whose character meanness and wickedness meet.
The deep-felt conviction of men that slavery breaks down the moral character . . . speaks out with . . . distinctness in the change of meaning which caitiff has undergone signifying as it now does, one of a base, abject disposition, while there was a time when it had nothing of this in it.
Trench.
© Webster 1913.