apostatize

American  

[uh-pos-tuh-tahyz] / əˈpɒs təˌtaɪz /

especially British, apostatise

verb (used without object)

apostatized, apostatizing

1. to commit apostasy.

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apostatize British  

/ əˈpɒstəˌtaɪz /

verb

1. (intr) to forsake or abandon one's belief, faith, or allegiance

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Usage

What does apostatize mean? Apostatize means to totally abandon or reject one’s religion. It can also be used in a slightly more general way to mean to totally abandon or reject one’s principles, cause, party, or other organization. The act of doing so is called apostasy, and someone who does so can be called an apostate. These words typically imply that before the rejection, one had a strong connection or involvement. They are all usually used in a way that’s critical of such abandonment—or that at least implies that others who remain in the religion or cause are critical of the departure. Apostasy is sometimes used more specifically to refer to a rejection of Christianity, but apostasy and apostatize are also used in the context of other religions, such as Islam. Example: The pastor’s sermon condemned those who apostatize—the trouble is, the apostates weren’t there to hear it.

Other Word Forms

• apostatism
  noun
• unapostatized
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of apostatize

From the Late Latin word apostatīzāre, dating back to 1545–55. See apostate, -ize

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Explanation

To apostatize is to give up a belief. Your best friend may do her best to sway you to change your basketball allegiance from the Celtics to the Lakers, but you refuse to apostatize. When someone renounces their religious principles, leaving one faith for another or ceasing to believe at all, they apostatize. The Latin root, apostata, means "one who forsakes religion or faith." This is the most common way to use this verb, but it also works well for changes in political belief: "I never thought he'd apostatize, but he's now a registered Democrat."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

apostatize apostatized apostatizing

The conundrum is one that has nothing to do with Rodrigues’s decision whether to lay down his life, but with his reluctance to apostatize, even in the face of others’ deaths.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2017

This edict of 1616 differed from that issued by Ieyasu in 1614, since the latter did not explicitly prescribe the death-penalty for converts refusing to apostatize.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley

He was immediately cast into prison, and alternate threats and promises were employed to induce him to apostatize.

From Mary, Help of Christians And the Fourteen Saints Invoked as Holy Helpers: Instructions, Novenas and Prayers with Thoughts of the Saints for Every Day in the Year by John J. (John James) Burke

Now the contrary practices must produce the contrary effects: and upon none more remarkable than those who apostatize from the profession, principles and piety of their ancestors.

From Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) A Brief Historical Account of the Lives, Characters, and Memorable Transactions of the Most Eminent Scots Worthies by John Howie

Is this the man likely to apostatize from every principle that can bind him to the State—his birth, his property, his education, his character, and his children?

From Irish Wit and Humor Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell by Anonymous

The first is the view of some of the Manichean teachers, that spirits were embodied by a hostile violence and cunning, the force and fraud of the apostatized Devil.

From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger

In what spirit the State regarded its relations with the Holy Office was exhibited in 1356, when Frà Michele da Pisa, the Inquisitor of Treviso, imprisoned some Jewish converts who had apostatized.

From A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages; volume II by Henry Charles Lea

Whatever services he performed for the party from which he apostatized, there is nothing in his more permanent writings which can be of the slightest advantage to English toryism.

From The International Monthly, Vol. II, No. I December 1, 1850 by Various

But when no Portuguese ship arrived, he apostatized; ordered his vassals to return to their old faith, and expelled the missionaries.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley

Some have apostatized from its principles, and betrayed ignominiously its cause.

From The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh by Shoghi Effendi

Without openly apostatizing, they insisted on a measure of independence.

From The Story of the Mormons, from the date of their origin to the year 1901 by William Alexander Linn

Many, like him, were apostatizing and dividing into factions, but the main body of the Saints, "taking the Holy Spirit for their guide," stood true to Brigham and the Twelve.

From Life of Heber C. Kimball, an Apostle The Father and Founder of the British Mission by Orson F. Whitney

Let us just see, in reference not to mere words, but to things, what can be truly meant by the terms ‘apostate or apostatizing Government,’ as applied to the Government of Great Britain.

From Leading Articles on Various Subjects by John Davidson

The first is the movement of the free-will towards God, and is an act of faith quickened by charity; and against this a man acts by apostatizing from the faith.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Every opportunity was given for apostatizing and for escaping death.

From A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era by F. (Frank) Brinkley

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