Recreant

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈɹɛkɹɪənt/

Origin

From Anglo-Norman recreent, Middle French recreant ("defeated"), from recroire ("to yield in a trial by combat, surrender allegiance"). See recray; and compare miscreant.

Full definition of recreant

Adjective

1. (now rare, poetic) Having admitted defeat and surrendered; defeated. from 13th c.
• 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.11:For, from the day that he thus did it leave,
  Amongst all Knights he blotted was with blame,
  And counted but a recreant Knight with endles shame.
2. (now poetic, literary) Unfaithful to someone, or to one's duties or honour; disloyal, false. from 17th c.
• 1671, John Milton, Paradise Regained, III:Turn'd recreant to God, ingrate and false.
• 1793, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, :And let the recreant traitors seek
  My tourney court ….

Derived terms

• recreance
• recreancy
• recreantly

Noun

1. Somebody who is recreant. A person who yields in combat, or is cowardly and faint-hearted.

Synonyms

• apostate
• coward
• deserter
• poltroon
• renegade
• turncoat

Anagrams

• recanter
• Terrance