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Definition of apostate : 1. One who has forsaken the faith, principles, or party, to which he before adhered; esp., one who has forsaken his religion for another; a pervert; a renegade.
2. One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.
3. Pertaining to, or characterized by, apostasy; faithless to moral allegiance; renegade.
4. To apostatize.

Synonyms:

deserter, poltroon, backslider, unfaithful, rat terrier, defector, traitor, renegade, approach, rat, runagate, tergiversator, turncoat, recreant, ratter, craven, one of little faith

Usage examples:

• But Charles was anxious on his own account, when France had almost wholly been gained back to its allegiance, that his coronation at Rheims should not be imputed to the actions and to the aid of one whom the French clergy and the French judges had condemned and executed as a heretic and apostate. - "Joan of Arc", Ronald Sutherland Gower.
• An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite; and I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the republican side of the question, unless among the guests there chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative Houses. - "Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson", Thomas Jefferson.
• It was only tanners, dyers and apostate priests who were Protestants at that day in the Netherlands. - "Project Gutenberg History of The Netherlands, 1555-1623, Complete", John Lothrop Motley.