recreant
Americanadjective
-
cowardly; faint-hearted
-
disloyal
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of recreant
1300–50; Middle English < Old French, adj. and noun use of present participle of recreire to yield in a contest, equivalent to re- re- + creire < Latin crēdere to believe
Explanation
A recreant is a heavy-duty coward. If your friend shoves you in front of him when a growling dog approaches, you'd quickly recognize him for the recreant that he is. And in the future you’d choose your friends more carefully. An extreme recreant would be the soldier who goes over to the enemy if it looks like they might win. Definitely not the kind of person you'd want in your platoon. Recreant (RE-cree-unt) comes from the Latin re-, meaning to "reverse" something, and credere, "entrust." The word miscreant is nearly synonymous, although a miscreant is not so much a coward, but just an all-around bad sort.
Vocabulary lists containing recreant
Believe It or Not: Cred
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 8
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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.
Richberg was not only recreant to his obligations as a public servant, but a traitor to organized labor when he made that recommendation.
From Time Magazine Archive
To a senior with average score the word benighted means weary, recreant means diverting and spurious means foamy.
From Time Magazine Archive
Will the world or any portion of it be so recreant as to misunderstand this contemptuous challenge?''
From Time Magazine Archive
Poet Vachel Lindsay, who has hymned many cities, played up the prosy aspect of "this Buffalo, this recreant town," to get a contrast for the "deathless glory" of nearby Niagara Falls.
From Time Magazine Archive
“My King, my lord and my uncle. Is it the court’s will that I pronounce sentence upon this recreant traitor?”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
