adj, noun, verb ·3 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

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

   "democratic backsliding"

2. 2
   a failure to maintain a higher state wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of backslide form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   sliding back

Synonyms

All synonyms

about faceabout-faceadamicamoralityapostasyapostate

Example

More examples

"Lawmakers from elsewhere in the nation have also criticized the proposed move, saying it represents a backsliding of democratic progress."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.