backslide
Americanverb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
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
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Out of Darkness
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P.S. Be Eleven
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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.
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
The drop in value is just the latest backslide for the struggling downtown shopping center.
From Seattle Times • May 22, 2024
Rodgers is an excellent example of the backslide.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 10, 2024
Every year teachers and parents observe how summer vacations lead some children’s academic progress to backslide.
From Scientific American • Jun. 29, 2023
In many places it finds numerous accessions; but not a few of its people backslide and return to their ancestral faith.
From India's Problem, Krishna or Christ by Jones, John P. (John Peter)
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.
