as in rebellious
given to resisting authority or another's control
several recusant senators refused to vote as commanded by the party leadership
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in resister
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Recent Examples of recusant
Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 15 July 2019
Noun
The uniform of the conformist — sports shirt, cardigan, tennis shoes — is as easily recognized as that of the recusant — dirty white T, sideburns, two days’ growth of beard.
—Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 15 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for recusant
Adjective
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The temperamental Moon activates your 3rd House of Communication, forming a supportive trine to rebellious Uranus in your 7th House of Companions.—
Tarot.com,
Baltimore Sun,
10 Apr. 2026
-
The series picks up 15 years after the finale of The Handmaid's Tale, and follows Agnes and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a rebellious newcomer.—
Julia Moore,
PEOPLE,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Some may remember back in the bad old days of the 1960s and ‘70s, tax resisters rose up to protest the Vietnam War.—
Charles Selle,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Mar. 2026
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Tanimoto, as the last living Block 42 resister, carries a singular piece of that history — a controversy and act of resistance within the walls of confinement that illustrated the dilemma faced by people imprisoned by their own country without accusation of a crime.—
Jake Goodrick,
Sacbee.com,
19 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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In a message Monday on X, Sánchez said that so far there were no signs indicating that the plane was attacked by rebel groups that operate near Puerto Leguizamo.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
24 Mar. 2026
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Petro, a leftist who was a member of a rebel group in his youth, has attempted to stage peace talks with Colombia’s remaining rebel groups under a strategy known as total peace.—
Manuel Rueda,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Your 11th House of Hopefulness hosts Mars, which is presently sextiling defiant Uranus in your determined sign.—
Tarot.com,
New York Daily News,
8 Apr. 2026
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But these defiant drag houses offered safety, acceptance and glamour which were celebrated in these urban spaces.—
Frank Rizzo,
Variety,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Language purists like to remind anyone who will listen that decimation actually means the slaughter of one in ten people, and was the military punishment wielded by the Roman army against deserters and mutineers.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 Oct. 2025
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Few among the bureaucratic, business, and even military elites denounced the mutineers, exposing limited support for Putin.—
ANDREI YAKOVLEV,
Foreign Affairs,
16 May 2025
Noun
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Feldstein Soto’s challenger in the city attorney’s race, John McKinney, said the public deserves immediate answers.—
Richard Winton,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Apr. 2026
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In Europe, investors will be looking ahead to the general election in Hungary taking place on Sunday, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is on course to lose to the main challenger party, Fidesz, in what could be the biggest power shift in 16 years.—
Leonie Kidd,
CNBC,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Yesterday, in an effort to galvanize democratic forces, oppositionists announced the foundation of the Strategic Council of Republicans Inside Iran.—
Arash Azizi,
The Atlantic,
1 Mar. 2026
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Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a Sunni Islamist umbrella group of oppositionist forces with ideological and organizational roots in al-Qaeda.—
Joseph Epstein,
Newsweek,
10 Dec. 2024
Noun
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This long list of accomplishments doesn’t even mention her work with the Raconteurs, her co-writes with Guy fuckin’ Clark, or that one of her records (2013’s Like a Rose) is a stone-cold classic of 2010s insurgent country.—
Stephen M. Deusner,
Pitchfork,
7 Apr. 2026
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While serving a tour of duty outside the province of Kandahar in Afghanistan in August of 2011, he was ambushed by Taliban insurgents disguised in Afghan National Army uniforms.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Recusant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/recusant. Accessed 12 Apr. 2026.
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