[syn: recreant, renegade]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Renegade \Ren"e*gade\ (r?n"?-g?d), n. [Sp. renegado, LL.
renegatus, fr. renegare to deny; L. pref. re- re- + negare to
deny. See Negation, and cf. Runagate.]
One faithless to principle or party. Specifically:
(a) An apostate from Christianity or from any form of
religious faith.
[1913 Webster]
James justly regarded these renegades as the most
serviceable tools that he could employ. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
(b) One who deserts from a military or naval post; a
deserter. --Arbuthnot.
(c) A common vagabond; a worthless or wicked fellow.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
renegade
adj 1: having deserted a cause or principle; "some provinces had
proved recreant"; "renegade supporters of the usurper"
[syn: recreant, renegade]
n 1: someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw
2: a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or
religion or political party or friend etc. [syn: deserter,
apostate, renegade, turncoat, recreant, ratter]
v 1: break with established customs [syn: rebel, renegade]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
70 Moby Thesaurus words for "renegade":
Sabbath-breaker, apostate, apostatize, atheist, atheistic,
backslider, backsliding, blasphemer, blasphemous, bolter,
collaborationist, collaborative, collaborator, convert, defect,
defector, degenerate, desert, deserter, disloyal, faithless,
fallen, fallen from grace, fifth columnist, heretic, heretical,
iconoclast, impious, insurgent, irreligious, irreverent, lapsed,
mugwump, perfidious, profanatory, profane, proselyte, quisling,
rat, rebel, recidivist, recidivistic, recreant, renegado, renegate,
renege, reversionist, runagate, sacrilegious, sacrilegist,
schismatic, seceder, secessionist, separatist, strikebreaker,
tergiversant, tergiversating, tergiversator, traitor, traitorous,
treacherous, treasonable, treasonous, turn against, turn traitor,
turnabout, turncoat, turntail, unbeliever, undutiful