backsliding

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aɪdɪŋ

Verb

backsliding

1. present participle and gerund of backslide

Adjective

backsliding (comparative more backsliding, superlative most backsliding)

1. sliding back

Noun

backsliding (plural backslidings)

1. An occasion on which one backslides, especially in a moral sense.

   democratic backsliding

   • 1918, Walter Raleigh, England and the War‎:

     We have had many stumblings and many backslidings.

   • 1851, Harvey Newcomb, A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females‎:

     If their actions are bad, look back and inquire into the cause of their backslidings.

   • 1906, Charles Kingsley, Out of the Deep‎:

     All their struggles, disappointments, failures, backslidings, which made them unhappy here, because they could not perfectly do the will of God, are past and over for ever.

   • 2018 June 6, Tony Naylor, “The new rules of pub etiquette: don't flirt with bar staff or steal the glasses”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     That is why any backsliding – disappearing to the toilet at last orders; ordering crazily expensive drinks on other people’s rounds; abruptly leaving after two pints – is sacrilege.