Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To revert to bad habits or lapse in religious practice.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To slide back, in a figurative sense; apostatize; turn from the faith; depart from or abandon religious principles or practices.

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

  • intransitive verb To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.

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

  • verb To regress; to slip backwards or revert to a previous, worse state.
  • verb To shirk responsibility; to renege on one's obligations or commitments.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

back +‎ slide

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Examples

  • I find in myself a natural aversion to my duty, and to spiritual and divine exercises, and a propensity to that which is evil, such an inclination towards the world and the flesh as amounts to a propensity to backslide from the living

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721

  • SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Just a few months after passing comprehensive health reform, U.S. lawmakers appear willing to risk a short-term backslide in the push to reduce the number of uninsured Americans until the overhaul's major provisions take effect in

    MarketWatch.com - Top Stories 2010

  • Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way.

    Oakland Focus Blog 2009

  • Another method of the devil to cause you to backslide is to induce you to practice something again that you told

    Life of Lucius B. Compton, the mountain evangelist, or, From the depths of sin to the heights of holiness, 1903

  • As some people already know, a dance move called the moonwalk (aka backslide) had been existed before it became the "moonwalk".

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • As some people already know, a dance move called the moonwalk (aka backslide) had been existed before it became the "moonwalk".

    WN.com - Financial News 2010

  • There are many recorded instances of the moonwalk, originally known as the backslide or

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

  • It is with a sense of profound ennui that one reads today the enthralling news that, "Gordon Brown hinted … that he could yet call a referendum on the new EU reform treaty if fellow European leaders 'backslide' on deals struck by Tony Blair to protect British sovereignty."

    The games they play Richard 2007

  • It is with a sense of profound ennui that one reads today the enthralling news that, "Gordon Brown hinted … that he could yet call a referendum on the new EU reform treaty if fellow European leaders 'backslide' on deals struck by Tony Blair to protect British sovereignty."

    Archive 2007-09-01 Richard 2007

  • But, notably, the hearings board said small - and medium-sized cities can't "backslide" as a result of its ruling.

    Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Local News 2009

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