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
-
Theirs was a rebellious poetics of beauty, or a beautiful poetics of rebellion.—
Taran Dugal,
New Yorker,
4 Mar. 2026
-
Yet his work is perhaps closer to the rebellious energy of Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg, for whom the diagonal line was synonymous with disruption.—
Elinore Weil,
Artforum,
4 Mar. 2026
Noun
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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
-
Sherrill focused many of her critiques on ICE and Trump’s immigration policies, positioning the state as a major resister of Trump’s deportation plans.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
20 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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This is, of course, exactly the logic that drove the CIA’s support for the Mujahideen Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the arming of Syrian rebel factions – both of which produced consequences their architects failed to foresee.—
John Calabrese,
The Conversation,
7 Mar. 2026
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Colombia’s government has struggled to contain drug traffickers and rebel groups that are now fighting over territory abandoned by the nation’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, following its 2016 peace deal with the government.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
3 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
In northern Israel daily rockets are keeping people on edge but also defiant.—
Greg Dixon,
NPR,
11 Mar. 2026
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Iran’s leaders have remained defiant after days of heavy strikes targeting the country’s leadership, military, ballistic missiles and disputed nuclear program.—
Samy Magdy,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Mar. 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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In the 2022 general election, Giannoulias won his race with 54% of the vote over his challenger, Republican Dan Brady of Bloomington.—
Jeremy Gorner,
Chicago Tribune,
7 Mar. 2026
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Two incumbents on the nonpartisan Gwinnett County Board of Education will face challengers.—
Cassidy Alexander,
AJC.com,
7 Mar. 2026
Noun
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On January 31, the domestic oppositionists Abdollah Momeni, Mehdi Mahmoudian, and Vida Rabbani were swept up and sent to prisons in northern Iran, far from their Tehran residences.—
Arash Azizi,
The Atlantic,
20 Feb. 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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That kind of chaos could easily spill over Iran’s borders, and not just by land; the Persian Gulf is narrow, and would not pose much of an obstacle to terrorists or insurgents who cross it in speedboats.—
Robert F. Worth,
The Atlantic,
6 Mar. 2026
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Paxton will counter that Texas runoffs often reward insurgents.—
Gromer Jeffers Jr,
Dallas Morning News,
4 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Recusant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/recusant. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.
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