Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who is guilty of apostasy; one who has forsaken the church, sect, party, profession, or opinion to which he before adhered (used in reproach); a renegade; a pervert.
- n. In the Roman Catholic Church, one who, without obtaining a formal dispensation, forsakes a religious order of which he has made profession. Synonyms Neophyte, Convert, Proselyte, etc. See
convert , and list under renegade. - Unfaithful to religious creed, or to moral or political principle; traitorous to allegiance; false; renegade: as, “the apostate lords,” Macaulay, Hist. Eng., i.
- To apostatize.
Wiktionary
- adj. Guilty of apostasy.
- n. A person who has renounced a religion or faith.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One who has forsaken the faith, principles, or party, to which he before adhered; esp., one who has forsaken his religion for another; a pervert; a renegade.
- n. One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.
- adj. Pertaining to, or characterized by, apostasy; faithless to moral allegiance; renegade.
- v. To apostatize.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. not faithful to religion or party or cause
- n. a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin apostata, from Greek apostatēs, from aphistanai, to revolt; see apostasy.
Examples
“In its message of violent global jihad, al-Qaida rails against U.S. support of Israel and what it calls apostate regimes in the Middle East.”
Voice of America: Radical Islamists Try to Exploit Islamophobia
“The early Reformers probably realized this but they felt the necessity of building up some sort of a Church which could bind together its members into a corporate body professing unity of belief and worship, and which, in contrast with the pope's Church, which they called apostate, could be called the true Church of God.”
“Declaring that person an apostate is impossible and impermissible.”
“The former wife of the deceased apostate is still living there.”
“I am deeply grateful for the legacy, albeit apostate from the church.”
“They had charged him as a blasphemer of God, and an apostate from the church; therefore he shows that he is a son of Abraham, and values himself upon his being able to say, Our father Abraham, and that he is a faithful worshipper of the God of Abraham, whom therefore he here calls the God of glory.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“Why should I be looked upon as advancing something dangerous and heterodox, or as an apostate from the faith and worship of the Jewish church, when I agree with them in this fundamental article?”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“His being a citizen of Rome saved him in the foregoing chapter from his being scourged by the chief captain as a vagabond, and here his being a Pharisee saved him from being condemned by the sanhedrim, as an apostate from the faith and worship of the God of Israel.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“They are ready to look upon him as an apostate from the Jewish church, and an enemy to them.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apostate’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Homeland Security
Words associated with homeland security
resilience, terrorism, preparedness, catastrophe, fear, radicalization, intelligence, security theater, bogeyman, Weapons of mass d..., Critical infrastr..., Emergence and 45 more...
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Slam Fodder
Those words that will inevitable end up in a Slam Poem
feel free to challenge me!:)bumptious, gamekeeper, slamily, burbuliatorius, cryptomnesia, paradox, pulchritudinous, mimetic, anhedonia, skelf, rampike, furlough and 84 more...
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Lyeneia's Field Journal
footnotes and add-ons from the gap-lands.
limey, apostate, conflagrate, kindle, dispossess, provenience, reckless malice, honking didactica..., consequential exi..., morainal, morae, compass and 28 more...
qroqqa I was interested to learn in John Wells's phonetic blog of 1 July 2008 that the traditional pronunciation of this is stressed on the /pɒ/. He says dictionaries only give /əˈpɒsteɪt/, though actually the OED (2nd ed.) gives only /əˈpɒstət/ with weak final syllable. I have always thought of it the way the BBC said it, viz /ˈæpəsteɪt/, though of course I've presumably never actually heard it or had occasion to say it. Jul 3, 2008
kewpid It seems like every bloody article mentioning John McCain describes him as an “apostate�?. Feb 10, 2008
seanahan David Eddings uses this word to describe a character in the Belgariad. Jul 2, 2007
slumry Only at the apostake. Jul 2, 2007
uselessness We found an apostate, may we burn her? Jul 2, 2007
slumry Or they may apply it to themselves ironically, acknowledging that *they* consider *me* an apostate. Jul 2, 2007
addendumb Very few former believers call themselves apostates and they generally consider this term to be a pejorative. Jul 2, 2007