backslide
Americanverb (used without object)
-
backslides,
present (3rd person singular)
-
backslid,
past
-
backslidden,
past participle
-
backsliding
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
backslidesimple
-
backslidessimple
-
have backsliddenperfect
-
has backsliddenperfect
-
am backslidingprogressive
-
are backslidingprogressive
-
is backslidingprogressive
-
have been backslidingperfect progressive
-
has been backslidingperfect progressive
Past
-
backslidsimple
-
had backsliddenperfect
-
was backslidingprogressive
-
were backslidingprogressive
-
had been backslidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of backslide
Explanation
To backslide is to revert to a worse state. If you've spent months breaking your bad habit of biting your nails, you'll have to care not to backslide. If you’re sliding back, you’re not going forward or even staying in the same place. That should help you remember that backsliding is a lapse in behavior or standards. If you backslide, you’re reverting to past behavior that was not good. A reformed criminal going back to crime is backsliding. When you backslide, you slip to a lower level. Backsliding is the opposite of making progress.
Vocabulary lists containing backslide
Every Body Looking
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Out of Darkness
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
P.S. Be Eleven
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And perhaps the best part of all: Nobody can call me a slob again—if I don’t backslide.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
In January, MPs on the Health Committee described the backslide as "national disgrace".
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
More than 3.7 million people are internally displaced in Myanmar, according to the United Nations, and more one in five people face acute food insecurity amid a national backslide into poverty.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
How did public health backslide so hard that it undid decades of progress—and is there any hope we can get back on track?
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2025
And the converts made at such cost of threats and promises were always ready to backslide.
From The Story of the Innumerable Company, and Other Sketches by David Starr Jordan
Though ex-military officials have been convicted and prosecutions against others continue, human rights groups say they face increasing challenges as democracy backslides in Guatemala.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
If the world backslides now, the health-related costs of doing so will be astronomical.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2022
Now after nearly two decades of reforms, backslides into scandals, and close watch from activists and the feds, Oakland can enter a probationary period.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2022
Those profits are made on paper not set in stone, but that doesn’t reduce the sense of loss as a portfolio backslides.
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2022
He has religion real bad for a couple of weeks, and then he backslides.
From In the Midst of Alarms by Robert Barr
But with ChatGPT, I backslid into all talking and very little listening, because with AI, you don’t really have to listen with much care, and you can absolutely make everything about you.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
So yes, there is at least reason for some worry that the defense has backslid a little bit after an October in which most of Seattle’s numbers were among the best in the league.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
And since that strong four-game introduction, he has quickly backslid in three outings since, finishing Thursday with a 10.80 ERA over that span.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2023
Also that decade, allied countries accounted for only 5 percent of global decreases — they backslid very little.
From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2021
“Heavy, herself,” pursued Mary Cox, “Belle and Lluella, who have all backslid from the Upedes, and yourself.”
From Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point Nita, the Girl Castaway by Alice B. Emerson
Adolf Hitler is an extremely backslidden Roman Catholic, but no fool.
From Time Magazine Archive
One day about the middle of the meeting this young man came to the altar, and when asked what was the trouble he said that he had backslidden.
From Heart Talks by Charles Wesley Naylor
Her father, at one time saved and earnest about the souls of others, had grown cold and backslidden, and now never even went near a Meeting.
From Catherine Booth — a Sketch by Colonel Mildred Duff
It seemed to me I was backslidden and that Brother Nelson and Brother Tubbs were going to deal with me at the meeting and tell me so.
From Personal Experiences of S. O. Susag by S. O. Susag
As for Rose, if there crept into her little prayers a touch of sentiment as she pleaded for the backslidden son of the minister, her prayers were none the worse for it.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 102, April, 1866 by Various
She said: "This is backsliding and will raise alarm bells at the Federal Reserve."
From Barron's ● Mar. 6, 2026
Even Grand Rapids is at risk of backsliding, and some parts of the city are struggling with too little opportunity and too few strong families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
But the north African nation has since seen democratic backsliding and the re-imposition of aspects of authoritarian rule.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2025
Among the zaniness there’s an emotional arc, a dance of personal growth and backsliding, and depending on what the scene requires, he might be the dumbest guy in the room or the wisest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025
Brother Fowles had been in Kilanga six years, which really when you think about it is long enough for about any kind of backsliding you could name.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
