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

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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
  • Some called them cowards; others opted for more colorful language.
    — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 19 Oct. 2026
  • There are always vultures circling, and always cowards caving.
    — Matt Calkins OutKick, FOXNews.com, 3 Oct. 2026
Definition of cowards
Noun
  • The traitors might have an easier time following the seduction of social media star King Kenny, who is considered a real traitor-hunter by the faithful.
    — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Abby became suspicious of Kuehl during a private conversation about possible traitors in the group.
    — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of traitors
Noun
  • Ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, however, still face attacks from Iran, while the Bab el-Mandeb Strait near Yemen has been threatened by the Houthi rebels.
    — Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 23 Oct. 2026
  • The war next door United Nations experts have documented Rwandan military support for M23 rebels, which have seized territory in eastern DRC.
    — Nimi Princewill, CNN Money, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of rebels
Noun
  • Most of those are chickens, the species that makes up the overwhelming majority of land animals raised for food; about 166,000 of them, per The Guardian, were cattle.
    — Marina Bolotnikova, Vox, 24 Oct. 2026
  • If curious extraterrestrial visitors were to reconnoiter Earth, they might well be struck by a planet that nurtures such an inordinate number of chickens.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026
Definition of chickens
Noun
  • Khalilzad on Friday wrote on X that there had been reports of Pakistan arming Afghans to fight the Taliban inside Afghanistan and of the Pakistani military recruiting Afghans to fight anti-Pakistan insurgents.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026
  • Gavroche and the insurgents of 1832—the wretched who became rioters—were ready to die defending a particular vision of the republic against the July Monarchy and the usurper Louis-Philippe.
    — Ollivier Pourriol, Vanity Fair, 19 Oct. 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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Cite this Entry

“Recreants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/recreants. Accessed 30 Oct. 2026.

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