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recreants

noun

plural of recreant
1
as in deserters
a person who abandons a cause or organization usually without right traditionally armies have dealt harshly with recreants, with execution being a common punishment for desertion during wartime

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in cowards
a person who shows a shameful lack of courage in the face of danger the historian reserved his greatest contempt for those recreants who opposed the witch hunt but lacked the courage to speak out against it

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in traitors
one who betrays a trust or an allegiance a spy and recreant to his country

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for recreants
  1. deserters
  2. cowards
  3. traitors
  4. rebels
  5. chickens
  6. insurgents
  7. renegades
Noun
  • And within his own country’s history, particularly, Dhont discovered the fates that met would-be deserters who were caught — brutal sentences often leading to death.
    — David Canfield, HollywoodReporter, 12 May 2026
  • Harry Truman granted amnesty to certain World War II deserters, while Jimmy Carter granted pardons to hundreds of thousands of individuals who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.
    — Stewart Ulrich, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025
Definition of deserters
Noun
  • No, and as true as all that might be, the most important lesson is that DEI turns people into cowards.
    — Bradley Gitz, Arkansas Online, 7 Sep. 2026
  • To me, the most notable change — outside of Robert not getting fully naked, you cowards — is that the meltdown is witnessed by much more of the senior class.
    — Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of cowards
Noun
  • Each season, The Traitors brings together a group of people for a game of deceit, separating the cast into faithfuls and traitors who must try to figure out who is who.
    — Hannah Dailey, Billboard, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The Traitors is lining up its next group of faithfuls and traitors.
    — Peter White, Deadline, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of traitors
Noun
  • Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis' political bureau, said Washington reached out to the rebels after their rapid advance down Yemen's western coast to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this month.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Sep. 2026
  • The State Department issued a caution warning to Americans in the Middle East on Saturday night after Houthi rebels in Yemen launched a ballistic missile at an airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital.
    — Carter Schroppe, The Washington Examiner, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of rebels
Noun
  • According to a spokesperson with the county's Animal Enforcement Services, 28 pigeons, three goats, two chickens, and one duck were found deceased near Cottonwood Drive at Fargo Place along the South River Trail.
    — CBS News Atlanta Digital Team, CBS News, 21 Sep. 2026
  • The chickens are sold at a little kiosk on Piazza Bruno Buozzi (in the Porta Romana area) that has become a Milan landmark.
    — Emma Bocchi, Vogue, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of chickens
Noun
  • The latest operation came just over a week after Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti ruled out negotiations with insurgents and said security operations would continue until militancy was eliminated from the province.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Hundreds joined the insurgents that day, and their numbers soon swelled into the thousands.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of insurgents
Noun
  • In some ways, there is a strange kind of unity to these three—all are set during the Depression, all feature stylish renegades.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2026
  • There are Sixties rock bands like the Sonics and the Small Faces, and pioneering hippie renegades like Love or the Thirteenth Floor Elevators.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 24 June 2026
Definition of renegades
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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recreant
recreants
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Cite this Entry

“Recreants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/recreants. Accessed 23 Sep. 2026.

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