backslider

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English

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Etymology

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From backslide +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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backslider (plural backsliders)

  1. 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.
    • 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?

Anagrams

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Fingallian

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Etymology

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Compare English backslider (to shirk responsibility).

Noun

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backslider

  1. One who will not do his work or shoulder his responsiblities.

References

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  • J. J. Hogan and Patrick C. O'Neill (1947) Béaloideas Iml. 17, Uimh 1/2, An Cumann Le Béaloideas Eireann/Folklore of lreland Society, page 263