recreant
- cowardly or craven.
- unfaithful, disloyal, or traitorous.
- a coward.
- an apostate, traitor, or renegade.
Origin of recreant
Synonyms
See more synonyms for recreant on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
Examples from the Web for recreant
Historical Examples
With Peter Pan for company, Sophie waited on the porch for the recreant pair.
Glory of YouthTemple Bailey
"Why you should call him a recreant knight, I cannot for the life of me understand," she said.
Kept in the DarkAnthony Trollope
Nor would he come forth, for all that Sir Bors called him coward and recreant.
King Arthur's KnightsHenry Gilbert
The groomsmen are denouncing him, as he deserves to be, as a slanderer and recreant.
Marion's Faith.Charles King
Finding her so obstinate he had said to her in a loud voice, "Die, recreant!"
The Trial of William TinklingCharles Dickens
recreant
- cowardly; faint-hearted
- disloyal
- a disloyal or cowardly person
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for recreant
adj.
c.1300, "confessing oneself to be overcome or vanquished," from Old French recreant "defeated, vanquished, yielding, giving; weak, exhausted; cowardly," present participle adjective from recroire "to yield in a trial by combat, surrender allegiance," literally "believe again;" perhaps on notion of "take back one's pledge, yield one's cause," from re- "again, back" (see re-) + croire "entrust, believe," from Latin credere (see credo).
Non sufficit ... nisi dicat illud verbum odiosum, quod recreantus sit. [Bracton, c.1260]
Meaning "cowardly" in English is from late 14c. Meaning "unfaithful to duty" is from 1640s.
n.
"one who yields in combat, one who begs for mercy, one who admits defeat," early 15c., hence "coward, faint-hearted wretch;" from recreant (adj.) and from Old French recreant as a noun, "one who acknowledges defeat, a craven, coward, renegade, traitor, wretch." In English, sense of "apostate, deserter, villain" is from 1560s.