Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To revert to bad habits or lapse in religious practice.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To slide back, in a figurative sense; apostatize; turn from the faith; depart from or abandon religious principles or practices.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
regress ; to slipbackwards or revert to a previous, worse state. - verb To
shirk responsibility ; torenege on one'sobligations orcommitments .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I find in myself a natural aversion to my duty, and to spiritual and divine exercises, and a propensity to that which is evil, such an inclination towards the world and the flesh as amounts to a propensity to backslide from the living
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Just a few months after passing comprehensive health reform, U.S. lawmakers appear willing to risk a short-term backslide in the push to reduce the number of uninsured Americans until the overhaul's major provisions take effect in
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Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way.
Oakland Focus Blog 2009
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Another method of the devil to cause you to backslide is to induce you to practice something again that you told
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As some people already know, a dance move called the moonwalk (aka backslide) had been existed before it became the "moonwalk".
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As some people already know, a dance move called the moonwalk (aka backslide) had been existed before it became the "moonwalk".
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There are many recorded instances of the moonwalk, originally known as the backslide or
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It is with a sense of profound ennui that one reads today the enthralling news that, "Gordon Brown hinted … that he could yet call a referendum on the new EU reform treaty if fellow European leaders 'backslide' on deals struck by Tony Blair to protect British sovereignty."
The games they play Richard 2007
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It is with a sense of profound ennui that one reads today the enthralling news that, "Gordon Brown hinted … that he could yet call a referendum on the new EU reform treaty if fellow European leaders 'backslide' on deals struck by Tony Blair to protect British sovereignty."
Archive 2007-09-01 Richard 2007
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But, notably, the hearings board said small - and medium-sized cities can't "backslide" as a result of its ruling.
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