Adjacent Words

Renegade definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

REN'EGADE,
RENEGA'DO, n. [L. re and nego, to deny.]
1. An apostate from the faith.
2. One who deserts to an enemy; a deserter.
3. A vagabond. [This is the sense in which this word is mostly used in popular language.]

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] n
1: someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw
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] v
1: break with established customs [syn: rebel, renegade]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Spanish renegado, from Medieval Latin renegatus, from past participle of renegare to deny, from Latin re- + negare to deny — more at negate Date: 1583 1. a deserter from one faith, cause, or allegiance to another 2. an individual who rejects lawful or conventional behavior II. intransitive verb (-gaded; -gading) Date: circa 1611 to become a renegade III. adjective Date: 1705 1. having deserted a faith, cause, or religion for a hostile one 2. having rejected tradition ; unconventional

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a person who deserts a party or principles. 2 an apostate; a person who abandons one religion for another. --v.intr. be a renegade. Etymology: Sp. renegado f. med.L renegatus (as RE-, L negare deny)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Renegade Ren"e*gade (r?n"?-g?d), n. [Sp. renegado, LL. renegatus, fr. renegare to deny; L. pref. re- re- + negare to deny. See Negation, and cf. Runagate.] One faithless to principle or party. Specifically: (a) An apostate from Christianity or from any form of religious faith. James justly regarded these renegades as the most serviceable tools that he could employ. --Macaulay. (b) One who deserts from a military or naval post; a deserter. --Arbuthnot. (c) A common vagabond; a worthless or wicked fellow.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(renegades) 1. A renegade is a person who abandons the religious, political, or philosophical beliefs that he or she used to have, and accepts opposing or different beliefs. N-COUNT 2. Renegade is used to describe a member of a group or profession who behaves in a way that is opposed to the normal behaviour or beliefs of that group or profession. Three men were shot dead by a renegade policeman. ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Apostate, backslider, renegado, recreant, turncoat. 2. Deserter, revolter, rebel, traitor. 3. Vagabond, worthless fellow.

Moby Thesaurus

Sabbath-breaker, apostate, apostatize, atheist, atheistic, backslider, backsliding, blasphemer, blasphemous, bolter, collaborationist, collaborative, collaborator, convert, defect, defector, degenerate, desert, deserter, disloyal, faithless, fallen, fallen from grace, fifth columnist, heretic, heretical, iconoclast, impious, insurgent, irreligious, irreverent, lapsed, mugwump, perfidious, profanatory, profane, proselyte, quisling, rat, rebel, recidivist, recidivistic, recreant, renegado, renegate, renege, reversionist, runagate, sacrilegious, sacrilegist, schismatic, seceder, secessionist, separatist, strikebreaker, tergiversant, tergiversating, tergiversator, traitor, traitorous, treacherous, treasonable, treasonous, turn against, turn traitor, turnabout, turncoat, turntail, unbeliever, undutiful