backslider

English

Etymology

From backslide +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbakslaɪdə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbækslaɪdɚ/

Noun

backslider (plural backsliders)

1. A recidivist; one who backslides, especially in a religious sense; an apostate.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Judgement of Dungara”, in Black and White, volume 1, Folio Society, published 2004, page 382:

     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.’

   • 2009, Andrew F. Cooper, “Confronting Vulnerability through Resilient Diplomacy: Antigua and the WTO Internet Gambling Dispute with the United States”, in Andrew F. Cooper, Timothy M. Shaw, editors, The Diplomacies of Small States: Between Vulnerability and Resilience, Palgrave Macmillan, page 216:

     The choice of unilateralism by the US also exposed it to charges that it is a backslider on its WTO commitments.

   • 2012 June 20, Brian Bethune, “Two against one: About coupledom and the stigma of being single”, in Maclean's:

     You say that you “lapse into coupledom” on occasion. Do you get grief from fellow militant singles for being a backslider?

   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.

Anagrams

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