Adjacent Words

Recreant definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

REC'REANT, a. [See Craven.]
1. Crying for mercy, as a combatant in the trial by battle; yielding; hence, cowardly; mean spirited.
2. Apostate; false.
Who for so many benefits receiv'd, turn'd recreant to God, ingrate and false.
REC'REANT, n. One who yields in combat and cries craven; one who begs for mercy; hence, a mean spirited, cowardly wretch.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: having deserted a cause or principle; "some provinces had proved recreant"; "renegade supporters of the usurper" [syn: recreant, renegade]
2: lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful; "the craven fellow turned and ran"; "a craven proposal to raise the white flag"; "this recreant knight"- Spenser [syn: craven, recreant] n
1: an abject coward [syn: poltroon, craven, recreant]
2: a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc. [syn: deserter, apostate, renegade, turncoat, recreant, ratter]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from present participle of (se) recreire to give up, yield, from Medieval Latin (se) recredere to resign oneself (to a judgment), from Latin re- + credere to believe — more at creed Date: 14th century 1. crying for mercy ; cowardly 2. unfaithful to duty or allegiance II. noun Date: 15th century 1. coward 2. apostate, deserter

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. literary --adj. 1 craven, cowardly. 2 apostate. --n. 1 a coward. 2 an apostate. Derivatives: recreancy n. recreantly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF, part. of recroire f. med.L (se) recredere yield in trial by combat (as RE-, credere entrust)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Recreant Rec"re*ant (-ant), a. [OF., cowardly, fr. recroire, recreire, to forsake, leave, tire, discourage, regard as conquered, LL. recredere se to declare one's self conquered in combat; hence, those are called recrediti or recreanti who are considered infamous; L. pref. re- again, back + credere to believe, to be of opinion; hence, originally, to disavow one's opinion. See Creed.] 1. Crying for mercy, as a combatant in the trial by battle; yielding; cowardly; mean-spirited; craven. ``This recreant knight.'' --Spenser. 2. Apostate; false; unfaithful. Who, for so many benefits received, Turned recreant to God, ingrate and false. --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Recreant Rec"re*ant, n. One who yields in combat, and begs for mercy; a mean-spirited, cowardly wretch. --Blackstone. You are all recreants and dastards! --Shak.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Cowardly, dastardly, base, craven, pusillanimous, mean-spirited, faint-hearted, yielding. 2. Apostate, treacherous, false, unfaithful, faithless, untrue, backsliding. II. n. 1. Coward, dastard. 2. Apostate, renegade, backslider.

Moby Thesaurus

Sabbath-breaker, apostate, arrant coward, atheist, atheistic, backslider, backsliding, bad egg, bad lot, base, black sheep, blackguardly, blasphemer, blasphemous, bolter, caitiff, collaborationist, collaborative, collaborator, convert, craven, dastard, dastardly, defector, degenerate, degraded, derelict, deserter, disaffected, disloyal, dunghill, dunghilly, faithless, fallen, fallen angel, fallen from grace, false, fickle, fifth columnist, impious, inconstant, infamous, irreligious, irreverent, knavish, lapsed, lecher, lost sheep, lost soul, miscreant, mugwump, not true to, notorious, of bad faith, perfidious, pervert, pimp, poltroon, poltroonish, profanatory, profane, profligate, proselyte, pusillanimous, quisling, rascally, rat, recidivist, recidivistic, renegade, renegado, renegate, reprobate, reversionist, roguish, runagate, sacrilegious, sacrilegist, scampish, scapegrace, schismatic, scoundrelly, seceder, secessionist, separatist, sneak, sorry lot, strikebreaker, tergiversant, tergiversating, tergiversator, traitor, traitorous, treacherous, treasonable, treasonous, trollop, trothless, turnabout, turncoat, turntail, unbeliever, undutiful, unfaithful, unloyal, unsteadfast, untrue, vile, villainous, whore