apostatize

Verb

apostatize (third-person singular simple present apostatizes, present participle apostatizing, simple past and past participle apostatized)

1. To give up or renounce one's position or belief.
   • Q. 15. May not a church so far apostatize by the neglect of discipline, as to cease to be a church of Christ, and become a synagogue of Satan?
     A. Yes. This has sometimes happened.1849, “Discipline of the Church.”, in A Catechism on the Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church (Theology), Presbyterian Board of Publication, →OCLC, page 31
   • Soft enticements of domestic life too often draw him from the ascetic trail; a monk who apostatizes to the world at times.1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXVI, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade

   Synonyms:

   commit apostasy, apostasize