apostatize
verbEtymology From apostate + -ize.
1
To give up or renounce one's position or belief.
- Q. 15. May not a church so far apostatize by the neglect of discipline, as to cease to be a church of Christ, and become a synagogue of Satan? A. Yes. This has sometimes happened.1849, “Discipline of the Church.”, in A Catechism on the Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church (Theology), Presbyterian Board of Publication, →OCLC, page 31:
- Soft enticements of domestic life too often draw him from the ascetic trail; a monk who apostatizes to the world at times.1857, Herman Melville, chapter XXVI, in The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade:
- Synonyms
- commit apostasy, apostasize
- Derived terms
- unapostatized
- Related terms
- apostasy, apostate, apostatic, apostatically