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Definition of backsliding : 1. of Backslide
2. Slipping back; falling back into sin or error; sinning.
3. The act of one who backslides; abandonment of faith or duty.

Synonyms:

reversion, evil, repetition, iniquity, villainy, lapse, reversal, depravity, recidivism, atavism, sin, backslide, enormity, reverting, regress, excess, reverse, recidivation, decadence, turnaround, better, wrong, retroversion, oversight, immorality

recessing, declining, returning, relapsing

lapsing, recurring

relapse, decline, retrogression, retrocession, retrogradation, return, recession, regression, throwback

backward

betraying, abdicating, renouncing, defecting, disavowing, denying, abnegating, deserting, crossing, abandoning, retracting

receding, fleeing, retreating, regressing

recessive, regressive

dereliction, desertion, abandonment, abnegation, defection, abdication, denial, betrayal, about-face, renouncement, apostasy, retractation, turnabout, disavowal

Usage examples:

• But you have been the means- the innocent means- of my backsliding, as they call it. - "Tess of the d'Urbervilles A Pure Woman", Thomas Hardy.
• And if the righteous, that is, they that run for it, will find work enough to get to heaven, 'then where will the ungodly' backsliding 'sinner appear? - "The Works of John Bunyan Volume 3", John Bunyan.
• Once thoroughly humbled to a degree that put them above the danger of backsliding, they obtained glimpses of security, and were gradually elevated to the hopes and the condition of the just. - "The Monikins", J. Fenimore Cooper.