Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The quality of being recreant; a cowardly yielding; mean-spiritedness.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being recreant.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being recreant.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Nationalism without Socialism - without a reorganisation of society on the basis of a broader and more developed form of that common property which underlay the social structure of Ancient Erin - is only national recreancy.

    Political Thought for the Day - Thought for the Century Alan Smart 2009

  • Nationalism without Socialism - without a reorganisation of society on the basis of a broader and more developed form of that common property which underlay the social structure of Ancient Erin - is only national recreancy.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Alan Smart 2009

  • Swann remained silent, and, by this fresh act of recreancy, spoiled the brilliant tournament of dialectic which Mme. Verdurin was rejoicing at being able to offer to Forcheville.

    Swann's Way 2003

  • Therefore, despite what Protorov had advised, he kept his boldness in check, masking himself against discovery while he continued his recreancy.

    The Miko Lustbader, Eric 1984

  • The steamer was his, and the men were his, and the boats were his, and the passengers were his, all for this: that he might save them in time of peril; and he would go down to the bottom of the ocean rather than that, by his recreancy, one of those entrusted to him should perish.

    How to Get on in the World A Ladder to Practical Success Major A.R. Calhoon

  • Quick to discover any unusual promise in a pupil, she indefatigably and masterfully stirred up such a one to his or her best, sometimes with remarks of approval, or by censuring recreancy with stinging sarcasm, or with expressions of despair over infirmity of purpose.

    The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

  • The pride of the young fellow, and the consternation occasioned by the recreancy of his superior, his belief in the doctrines he had confessed with Mazurier, and the time-serving of the latter, had evidently thrown asunder the guards of his peace, and produced a sad state of confusion.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 35, September, 1860 Various

  • To have acted otherwise than I did would have been on my part betrayal of the interests of the United States, indifference to the interests of Panama, and recreancy to the interests of the world at large.

    Theodore Roosevelt and His Times Harold Howland

  • While facing the savage warfare of their former friends Liberal Republicans were suddenly brought into the most friendly and intimate relations with the men whose recreancy to humanity they had unsparingly denounced for years.

    Political Recollections 1840 to 1872 George W. Julian

  • The Thirty-first Congress was not alone remarkable for the great questions it confronted and its shameless recreancy to humanity and justice; it was equally remarkable for its able and eminent men.

    Political Recollections 1840 to 1872 George W. Julian

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