Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Unfaithful or disloyal to a belief, duty, or cause.
- adj. Craven or cowardly.
- n. A faithless or disloyal person.
- n. A coward.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Ready to yield in fight; acknowledging defeat; hence, craven; cowardly. Compare craven.
- Unfaithful to duty; betraying trust.
- n. One who yields in combat and cries craven; one who begs for mercy; hence, a meanspirited, cowardly, or unfaithful wretch.
Wiktionary
- adj. disloyal, unfaithful, surrendering allegiance.
- adj. cowardly, craven
- n. Somebody who is recreant. A person who yields in combat, or is cowardly and faint-hearted.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Crying for mercy, as a combatant in the trial by battle; yielding; cowardly; mean-spirited; craven.
- adj. Apostate; false; unfaithful.
- n. One who yields in combat, and begs for mercy; a mean-spirited, cowardly wretch.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an abject coward
- n. a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.
- adj. having deserted a cause or principle
- adj. lacking even the rudiments of courage; abjectly fearful
Etymologies
- From Old French recreant 'yielding, giving', from the verb recroire "to yield in a trial by combat, surrender allegiance", itself from re- 'again, back' + croire 'to entrust, believe' (from Latin credere). In use in English as an adjective, meaning "confessing oneself to be overcome or vanquished," since the 14th century, the usage as a noun for a coward or faint-hearted was first recorded from the 15th century. The modern sense of "unfaithful to duty" is modern, first attested in 1643 (OED). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English recreaunt, defeated, from Old French recreant, present participle of recroire, to yield in a trial by combat, surrender allegiance, from Medieval Latin recrēdere, to yield, pledge : Latin re-, re- + Latin crēdere, to believe; see kerd- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He whom thou hast called recreant knight, has been Saxon host.”
“a 'recreant' -- just what needs the slight punishment of instant death to the remarker -- and ... where is the way?”
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846
“A Spanish soldier is represented dragging a fugitive Indian from a lake by a lasso around his neck; while on the shore stands a monk ready to baptize the recreant on his arrival!” [”
“recreant," had he wavered when the descendant of Mary Stuart claimed his services.”
“A mosaic of images depicting your chronic laziness, unearned ego, and recreant cruelty.”
““The last innocent has suffered at your hands, recreant,” grimly intoned THE WRAITH.”
“If her conduct was forward, well, her connubial expectations had been dashed by the recreant Popplewell, and the arrival of Flashy with whiskers rampant must have seemed like the answer to a randy young matron's prayer.”
“Could he be blamed as recreant if he had helped his unexpected ally to break out and return to his prince?”
“For he was recreant, he had exiled himself, knowing well what he was doing.”
“I went striding back down the valley, then, singing "A-hunting we will go", if I remember rightly, and was just in time to see Yakub and Kutebar return from their meeting with Buzurg Khan in a fine rage: the overlord had refused to risk any of his people in what he, the shirking recreant, regarded as a lost hope.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘recreant’.
-
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 4087 more...
-
Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
-
Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
-
phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
-
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...
-
Fearlobes
EEK! Emotion words and words associated with fear. Let's avoid -phobia words.
terrified, threatened, paralyzed, afraid, tormented, frightened, scared, blench, worried, cowardly, fretful, menaced and 57 more...
-
MY COLLECTION
COLLECT FROM DIFFERENT PAPERS,WEBSITES,BOOKS AND MOVIES.
VAUDEVILLE, herbivores, BANDWAGON, PREY, squander, squabbling, Concierge, persuade, dethrone, cacophony, maize, ubiquitous and 98 more...
-
wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
-
Good for Academics
Gahh!! Study!
supplant, usurp, finagle, winnow, draconian, abut, collude, swindle, objectify, incite, decadent, obstinate and 327 more...
-
Words
teeter, headlong, reprobate, canard, ersatz, prevaricate, trenchant, minatory, fatuous, stultify, vitiate, fulminate and 135 more...
-
~~Olde-Fashioned Insults~~
ragamuffin, muttonchops, tatterdemalion, nincompoop, whippersnapper, bootlicker, backscratcher, loggerhead, weisenheimer, hornswoggler, thimblerigger, quacksalver and 111 more...
-
Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
-
ADW2
nudnik, temper, intercalate, cleave, scowl, chapfallen, malapropos, disport, annals, paean, paradisiacal, whet and 362 more...
-
SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL R
rabid, raconteur, rail, rambunctious, ramification, rampant, rancor, rancorous, range, rankle, ransack, rapacious and 112 more...
-
Not Quite The Real Thang
masquerade, sham, counterfeit, shyster, phoney, bogus, pseudo, artificial, fabricated, mock, concocted, false and 158 more...
-
GRE Vocab II
apace, impetuous, abet, countenance, mainstay, munificent, bilious, dudgeon, pettish, querulous, waspish, neophyte and 113 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for recreant.
hernesheir Not many English words end in -creant.... e.g. miscreant - any others to suggest or list? Sep 29, 2009
milosrdenstvi LEAR
Hear me, recreant, on thine allegiance, hear me;
Since thou hast sought to make us break our vow,
Which we durst never yet, and with strained pride
To come between our sentence and our power,
Which nor our nature nor our place can bear,
Our potency made good, take thy reward.
- King Lear Sep 29, 2009
bilby "We must find
An evident calamity, though we had
Our wish, which side should win; for either thou
Must, as a foreign recreant, be led
With manacles through our streets, or else
Triumphantly tread on thy country's ruin..."
- William Shakespeare, 'The Tragedy of Coriolanus'. Aug 29, 2009