backsliding

backsliding
    n 1: a failure to maintain a higher state [syn: {backsliding},
         {lapse}, {lapsing}, {relapse}, {relapsing}, {reversion},
         {reverting}]
    

Backsliding \Back"slid"ing\, n.
   The act of one who backslides; abandonment of faith or duty.
   [1913 Webster]

         Our backslidings are many.               --Jer. xiv. 7.
   [1913 Webster] backspace
    

Backslide \Back"slide"\ (b[a^]k"sl[imac]d"; 277), v. i. [imp.
   {Backslid}; p. p. {Backslidden}, {Backslid}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Backsliding}.] [Back, adv. + slide.]
   To slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the
   faith and practice of a religion that has been professed.
   [1913 Webster]
    

Backsliding \Back"slid"ing\, a.
   Slipping back; falling back into sin or error; sinning.
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         Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord. --Jer.
                                                  iii. 14.
   [1913 Webster]
    

139 Moby Thesaurus words for "backsliding":
      Adamic, about-face, amorality, apostasy, apostate, atheism,
      atheistic, backing, backset, backslide, backward motion,
      backward step, betrayal, blasphemous, bolt, breakaway, carnal,
      carnality, criminality, defection, delinquency, desertion,
      disenchantment, disloyalty, erring, evil, evil nature,
      faithlessness, fall, fall from grace, fallen, fallen from grace,
      fleshly, flip-flop, frail, going over, immorality, impiety,
      impious, impiousness, impure, impurity, infirm, irreligion,
      irreligious, irreverence, irreverent, lapse, lapse from grace,
      lapsed, lapsing, moral delinquency, of easy virtue, peccability,
      peccable, postlapsarian, prodigal, prodigality, profanatory,
      profane, ratting, reaction, recession, recidivation, recidivism,
      recidivist, recidivistic, recidivous, reclamation, reconversion,
      recreancy, recreant, recrudescent, reentry, refluence, reflux,
      regress, regression, regressive, rehabilitation, reinstatement,
      relapse, relapsing, renegade, restitution, restoration,
      retroaction, retrocession, retroflexion, retrogradation,
      retrogression, retroversion, retrusion, return, returning,
      reversal, reverse, reversion, reverting, revulsion, rollback,
      sacrilegious, secession, setback, slipping back, sternway,
      throwback, treason, turn, turnabout, turning traitor, unangelic,
      unangelicalness, unchaste, unchastity, unclean, uncleanness,
      undutiful, undutifulness, ungodliness, ungodly, ungood, ungoodness,
      unmorality, unrighteous, unrighteousness, unsaintliness, unsaintly,
      unvirtuous, unvirtuousness, vice, viciousness, virtueless, wanton,
      wantonness, wayward, waywardness, weak, wrongdoing