RECANT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does recant mean? 

• RECANT (verb)
  The verb RECANT has 1 sense:

1. formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

  Familiarity information: RECANT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RECANT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they recant    ... he / she / it recants   
Past simple: recanted   
Past participle: recanted   
-ing form: recanting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

abjure; forswear; recant; resile; retract

Context example:

She abjured her beliefs

Hypernyms (to "recant" is one way to...):

disown; renounce; repudiate (cast off)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

recantation (a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion)

 Context examples 

This was very wonderful if it were true; and Lady Russell was in a state of very agreeable curiosity and perplexity about Mr Elliot, already recanting the sentiment she had so lately expressed to Mary, of his being a man whom she had no wish to see.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)