recant - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Verb
recant (third-person singular simple present recants, present participle recanting, simple past and past participle recanted)
- (ambitransitive) To withdraw or repudiate a statement or opinion formerly expressed, especially formally and publicly.
- ✤ Synonyms: abjure, disavow, disown, recall, retract, revoke, take back, unsay, withcall; see also Thesaurus: recant
- ✤ Convince me that I am wrong, and I will recant.
- ✤ How soon […] ease would recant/Vows made in pain, as violent and void!1
- ✤ But as Mr. Trump denounces what he describes as failures by the Washington establishment on China, Mr. Biden, an avatar of that establishment, is not recanting his past enthusiasm for engagement.2
Verb
recant (third-person singular simple present recants, present participle recanting, simple past and past participle recanted)
- To give a new cant (slant, angle) to something, in particular railway track on a curve.
- ✤ Numerous curves, which previously had given no trouble at 75 and 80 m.p.h., were realigned and recanted to adapt them for 90 m.p.h. and more, […].3
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɹəˈkænt/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- Rhymes: -ænt
Etymology 1
First attested in 1535, from Latin recantare (“to sing back, reecho, sing again, repeat in singing, recant, recall, revoke, charm back or away”), from re- (“back”) + canto (“to chant, to sing”), frequentative of cano.
Etymology 2
From re- + cant.
Printed 2026-09-04.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Footnotes
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1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, 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: ↩
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2020 September 6, “Joe Biden’s China Journey”, in New York Times : ↩
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1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 263: ↩