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 shirkresponsibility; 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
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
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.
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."
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."
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