Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of recanting; retraction; especially, solemn renunciation or abjuration of a doctrine or religious system previously maintained, with acknowledgment that it is erroneous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of recanting; a declaration that contradicts a former one; that which is thus asserted in contradiction; retraction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the act of recanting or something recanted

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The cardinal plainly told him so; and as it is, he has signed a paper which they call a recantation of heresy.

    For the Faith Evelyn Everett-Green 1894

  • Very often, when you look at what the defense attorney now labels a recantation, you see that in fact the witness has not really recanted anything at all, but instead has merely asserted somehow or other that they think the individual is innocent usually in the abstract, without addressing specific factual questions or prior statements by that witness.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » New Way to Resolve Actual Innocence Claims in Capital Cases?: 2009

  • The girl then recanted – only to admit later that her recantation was a lie told in order to stay with her mother, the state argues.

    Waldo Jaquith - Carpitcher case goes before Virginia Supreme Court. 2007

  • But he says that to walk in that procession, to take part in that act of so-called recantation and reconciliation, would be in itself as a confession that those things which he had held and taught were heretical.

    For the Faith Evelyn Everett-Green 1894

  • He often recanted, and the recantation was a thousand times worse than the thing recanted.

    Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest Robert Green Ingersoll 1866

  • To the Crown, however, a recantation is a red flag signalling that a woman has been pressured to drop her allegations.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Kirk Makin 2011

  • To the Crown, however, a recantation is a red flag signalling that a woman has been pressured to drop her allegations.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Kirk Makin 2011

  • To the Crown, however, a recantation is a red flag signalling that a woman has been pressured to drop her allegations.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Kirk Makin 2010

  • Their petition highlighted the seriously disturbing timing and the circumstances of the so-called recantation, describing that Nicole's counsel, Atty.

    Davao Today 2009

  • Their petition highlighted the seriously disturbing timing and the circumstances of the so-called recantation, describing that Nicole's counsel, Atty.

    Davao Today 2009

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