recidivist
Americannoun
Explanation
Use the noun recidivist to describe someone who can't stop committing crimes — for example, a repeat shoplifter is a recidivist If you've got serious backsliding tendencies, this could be your next step: recidivist is tech-talk for "repeat offender." A recidivist is basically someone who can't help lapsing into previous bad behavior patterns, usually of the criminal kind. An inmate who is released from prison and immediately steals a car can be described as a recidivist.
Vocabulary lists containing recidivist
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cas, cad, cid
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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.
It will, however, create additional programming for TV, more advertising, revenue, opportunities for recidivist gamblers, etc.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025
He died a week ago for want of $500 to make a $5,000 bond, held as a recidivist for allegedly shoplifting a $24 pair of pants and a $20 electric shaver from Walmart in July.
From Slate • Aug. 24, 2023
From time to time, a regulator will call foul on recidivist corporate wrongdoers.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 28, 2022
Being cast out by society is all that Hans — a recidivist if ever there was one — seems to have known.
From Washington Post • Apr. 20, 2022
To analyse the sensibility of a soul mounting on flaming pinions to God is easier than to describe the modulations of a moral recidivist.
From Unicorns by Huneker, James
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.
