back·slide

(băk′slīd′)

intr.v. back·slid (-slĭd′), back·slid·ing, back·slides

To revert to bad habits or lapse in religious practice.

back′slid′er n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

backslider - someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior

reversionist, recidivist

offender, wrongdoer - a person who transgresses moral or civil law

backslider

noun relapser, renegade, reneger, deserter, fallen angel, turncoat, apostate I've never heard of him punishing a backslider.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

backslider

[ˈbækˈslaɪdəʳ] N → reincidente mf

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Those black angularities which his face had used to put on when his wishes were thwarted now did duty in picturing the incorrigible backslider who would insist upon turning again to his wallowing in the mire.

View in context

Once, also, when walking through a solitary piece of woods, he heard a loud voice from some invisible speaker; and it cried, "What shall be done to the backslider? Lo!

View in context

Call me a backslider, darlings, but I'm no longer altogether sure a no-deal Brexit is going to be a good thing.

DONNA PSEY

Now, Indonesia is a progressive, and Malaysia is a backslider.

Philippines is 12th in happiness progress

O'Gorman follows McGann in arguing for the value of Swinburne's later verse, just as O'Gorman argues against the influential vision of Swinburne as a political backslider by pointing out a more fundamental consistency to his political views.

Swinburne

The Biggest Backslider in Press Freedom award goes to Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar, where any journalists reporting on the Rohingya tragedy are arrested or jailed.

Trump deserves prize for undermining press freedom

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi also did not escape the list after she was named the 'Biggest Backslider in Press Freedom.' Polish President Andrzej Duda was named second in that category.

Donald Trump, Erdogan tagged as global oppressors of media

I fear that such a one would have been treated as a backslider from the strict path of psychoanalytic doctrine, a heretic whose ideas were incompatible with those of Freud, and therefore subversive of psychoanalysis (p.

What is Psychoanalysis: 100 Years after Freud's Secret Committee

Our bird Bella has been unusually vocal and active during the past two weeks as a family of robins has set up a nest in a curly willow tree about four feet from our backslider.

Local dog enjoying stardom

* Backslider Blues--They think success today is impossible because of yesterday.

Players vs. pretenders: what kind of followers do you lead? People who look the part or those who do their part?