apostatize, v.
(əˈpɒstətaɪz)
[ad. late L. apostatīzā-re for earlier apostatāre, f. apostata: see -ize.]
1. To abandon or renounce one's religious faith or moral allegiance; to become an apostate.
| 1611 Cotgr., Apostasier, to play th' Apostata, to Apostatize it. 1634–46 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 373 Who will not perjure themselves by apostatizing with perjured prelatts. 1754 Edwards Freed. Will ii. xi. (ed. 4) 162 A very great part of the angels apostatised. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 14 If ever he [Kirke] did apostatize, he was bound by a solemn promise..to turn Mussulman. |
b. Const. from the original faith, to the new.
| 1552 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 313 Many princes and supreme pontiffs..have been found to apostatise from the faith. 1676 I. Mather Philip's War (1862) 108 A wretched English man that apostatized to the Heathen. 1839 Blackw. Mag. XLVI. 817 All China apostatized to the new faith. |
2. gen. To abandon a principle, desert a party.
| 1648 Cromwell Lett. liii. (Carl.) He apostatised from your cause and quarrel. 1722 Wollaston Relig. Nat. ix. 177 To cast off reason..apostatize from humanity, and recoil into the bestial life. 1851 Dixon Penn. xi. (1872) 89 Some of the courtiers were apostatising. |
† 3. Med. To become resolved into a purulent discharge. (Cf. medical Gr. ἀπόστασις suppurative inflammation.) Obs. rare.
| 1651 Biggs New Dispens. ¶236 Whatsoever has once apostatized into..corruption in the body. |