Word.ws English Dictionary

backslider

UK/ˈbakslaɪdə//ˈbækslaɪdɚ/

backslider noun: a recidivist; one who backslides, especially in a religious sense; an apostate.

Noun

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.
    • 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.’1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Judgement of Dungara”, in Black and White, volume 1, Folio Society, published 2004, page 382
  2. (Ireland) One who will not do his work or shoulder his responsibilities.

backslider meaning in Tamil and Malayalam

backslider in Tamil

பின்சறுக்குபவர், திருந்திய திருத்தங்கெட்டு விழுபவர்

backslider in Malayalam

recidivist, regressor, apostate
ധർമ്മഭ്രംശകൻ, വഴിപിഴച്ചവൻ, സ്ഥിരം കുറ്റവാളി, അടിക്കടികുറ്റകൃത്യം ചെയ്യുന്നവൻ, കുറ്റകൃത്യങ്ങളിലേക്കു മടങ്ങിപ്പോയവൻ, സ്വമതത്യാഗി

Examples of backslider in a sentence

  • The choice of unilateralism by the US also exposed it to charges that it is a backslider on its WTO commitments.2009, Andrew F. Cooper, “Confronting Vulnerability through Resilient Diplomacy: Antigua and the WTO Internet Gambling Dispute with the...
  • Do you get grief from fellow militant singles for being a backslider?2012 June 20, Brian Bethune, “Two against one: About coupledom and the stigma of being single”, in Maclean's:

Forms of backslider

pluralbacksliders

Origin of backslider

From backslide + -er.

Questions about backslider

What does backslider mean?
Backslider means a recidivist; one who backslides, especially in a religious sense; an apostate.
What is backslider in Tamil?
Backslider in Tamil is பின்சறுக்குபவர், திருந்திய திருத்தங்கெட்டு விழுபவர். See Backslider meaning in Tamil.
How do you use backslider in a sentence?
The choice of unilateralism by the US also exposed it to charges that it is a backslider on its WTO commitments.
What part of speech is backslider?
Backslider is a noun.
How do you pronounce backslider?
Backslider is pronounced /ˈbakslaɪdə/ (UK).
What is the plural of backslider?
The plural of backslider is backsliders.

Words near backslider in the dictionary

  1. backslashing
  2. backslid
  3. backslidden
  4. backslide
  5. backslided
  6. backslider
  7. backsliders
  8. backslides
  9. backslideth
  10. backsliding
  11. backslidings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: backslider (page history and authors); backslider (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); backslider (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-backslider.wav.

Cite this entry: “backslider.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/backslider. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.