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
Such a change didn't come easily; I am still trying, but old habits from the past keep causing me to backslide at times.
From The Life of Me; an autobiography by Clarence Edgar Johnson
There is confrontation and denial, improvements followed by backslides.
From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2025
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
They’ve also had as many backslides as moments of progress.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2017
It is worse yet if a man whose name has long been a guarantee for his message, backslides and brings doubt upon all his previous professions.
From The Social Principles of Jesus by Walter Rauschenbusch
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
The Mountaineers backslid to a 5-6 record last season, when Aguilar’s production dipped and he completed 56% of his passes for 3,003 yards with 23 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2024
Over those years, progress toward alleviating hunger and malnutrition has stalled and then backslid as growing numbers of people lost the wherewithal to get enough to eat.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 23, 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
Often men backslid, and to a period of intense emotional religion succeeded one of utter unbelief and of reversion to the worst practices which had been given up.
From The Winning of the West, Volume 4 Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807 by Theodore Roosevelt
Adolf Hitler is an extremely backslidden Roman Catholic, but no fool.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had been converted at a revival the previous winter, but was counted to have backslidden of late, and become indifferent to religion.
From Dr. Heidenhoff's Process by Edward Bellamy
But after her uncle had backslidden, she began to receive more or less persecution from her people.
From Riches of Grace A Compilation of Experiences in the Christian Life by E. E. Byrum
Well, the young brother must have backslidden, was the instant conclusion, and so it was reported.
From Adventures in the Land of Canaan by Robert Lee Berry
Long ago the Doctor had given over open expostulation; every such talk seemed to evoke a new and more airy and more adventurous demon in the backslidden Reuben.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 99, January, 1866 by Various
In countries like Bangladesh, India and Nepal, youth-led anti-government uprisings have over the past 12 months rallied immense support against the various pressure points of corruption, nepotism, economic inequality and democratic backsliding.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
At a time of societal fracture and backsliding, “Liberation” offered audiences the opportunity to commune collectively with a watershed movement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
His husband is still paying off his old credit-card debt, and they are constantly trying to cut down on expenses to avoid backsliding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
Meanwhile, other countries are backsliding and reaching for coal.
From Salon ● Apr. 4, 2026
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.
