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backslider

noun
/ˈbakslaɪdə/UK/ˈbækslaɪdɚ/US

Etymology

From backslide + -er.

  1. inherited from *slīdaną✻ — “to slide, glide”
  2. inherited from *slīdan✻
  3. inherited from slīdan — “to slide”
  4. inherited from sliden
  5. compounded as backslide — “back + slide”
  6. suffixed as backslider — “backslide + er”

Definitions

  1. A recidivist

    A recidivist; one who backslides, especially in a religious sense; an apostate.

    • She married him thinking to change his ways, and for a while he got religion, but he was ever a backslider; she soon began finding bottles stashed about the house.
    • At night the Red Elephant Tusk boomed and groaned among the hills, and the faithful waked and said: ‘The God of Things as They Are matures revenge against the backsliders.’
    • The choice of unilateralism by the US also exposed it to charges that it is a backslider on its WTO commitments.

  2. One who will not do his work or shoulder his responsibilities.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for backslider. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA