backslider

backslider

One who reverts or relapses into bad habits, unethical or immoral behavior, or criminal activity. We've tried to help her quit smoking, but she's a bit of a backslider. Jimmy's too much of a backslider to stay true to the practices of the church.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • shyster
  • make (the) baby Jesus cry
  • log (one) for (something)
  • log for
  • logging
  • ethically challenged
  • (one's) hands are clean
  • a bad lot
  • bad lot
References in periodicals archive
After 1215, there was a social census which enabled every backslider in faith to be identified and assigned a mark to distinguish him as of "true" Christian lineage, a converso (one who had embraced the Christian faith by taking the sacrament), or a marrano (one who claimed to be a Christian, took the sacrament, and observed the faith publicly, but continued to be a Jew privately).
The idiocy of race
To understand Bill Clinton the prodigal son, the almost penitent, the backslider, it helps to know something about Baptists.
Bill the Baptist
The fundamentalist view lays down an inflexible law which leaves no room for any other interpretation, and which roundly accuses any backslider of blasphemy.
Gatha Sri Adi Granth and the Controversy
The full cycle, from agreement to rejection to agreement, took roughly one year, with debtor countries' reputations with the IMF ranging all the way from "model debtor' to "irresponsible backslider.'
Latin American debt: the choices ahead
Biography of a backslider; he decided, he defaulted, he deserted.
The Voice of Scotland; Count on no-one
The opening verse of the poem explicitly locates the backslider as
In my flesh shall I see God: ritual violence and racial redemption in "The Black Christ"
The original purpose of Lent was to instruct pagan converts in the faith and to prepare the backslider to return to the fold.
THEME OF THE DAY
Gowan, Teresa 2010 Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco.
Reproducing Disorder: The Effects of Broken Windows Policing on Homeless People with Mental Illness in San Francisco
The seriousness of this disorder is both compounded and hidden by an apparent prevalence discernable in the following remark: "We have observed many Blacks [sic], whom we refer to as 'Cultural Backsliders'....
Research
Data derived from Banking On Climate Change, an annual report into extreme fossil fuel funding compiled by Bank Track, an NGO, shows that SMBC was in the top 10 'biggest backsliders on coal' mining and power from 2016 to 2017.
Japan's SMBC reconsidering its coal-financing policy
Perhaps some arrangements could be made to stop backsliders from leaving the country until they have paid up.
The flaws in seeking MPs' approval for Syria strike
But the pull of politics was not the only thing that made men backsliders. Monogamy, modest living and abstention from alcohol also posed problems for them.
Wendy Urban-Mead, The Gender of Piety: family, faith, and colonial rule in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe
(18) However, Russia is one of the democratic backsliders and China never was democratic.
Exporting security: China, the United States, and the innovator's dilemma
Instead, Abe should use his power to push Japan toward becoming a freer and more equal society -- a beacon to other countries in Asia, and a counterpoint to the troubling backsliders of the West.
Japan's chance to resist a turn to the right
Hobos, hustlers and backsliders. Homeless in San Francisco.
Will to simplify: acting on homelessness/Vontade de simplificacao: agir no fenomeno dos sem-abrigo