apostate

1. not comparableExhibiting apostasy; (from the religious viewpoint) guilty of apostasy.

   We must punish this apostate priest.

   3 more examples

   VVho can impair thee, mighty King, or bound / Thy Empire? eaſily the proud attempt / Of Spirits apoſtat and thir Counſels vaine / Thou haſt repeld, vvhile impiouſly they thought / Thee to diminiſh, and from thee vvithdravv / The number of thy vvorſhippers.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 608–613

   a wretched and apostate state

   1711 April 1 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1710–1711”, in The Spectator, number 19; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   An enormous number of monks and priests gave themselves up to sorcery, and there was no lack of apostate priests to perform the ceremonies of the Black Mass.

   1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 101

plural apostates

1. countablelifestyleA person who has renounced a religion or faith.

   Synonyms: deconvert, withersake

2. CatholicismOne who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.
3. broadlyOne who has renounced a political party, a cause, etc.

   But the most politically damaging blow came from a late-breaking apostate: Mr. Clooney, who just weeks earlier had spent time with Mr. Biden and helped deliver $28 million to his campaign at a Los Angeles fund-raiser.

   2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: recreant, turncoat, balimbing, butterfly, changeling, defector, runagate, traitor