renegade
/ˈrɛnɪɡeɪd
/noun
1A person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles: an agent who later turns out to be a renegade...
- Let India reclaim itself from the criminals and outlaws, reprobates and renegades.
- The expansion of Anglo-Norman lords in Ireland took place through alliances with Irishmen whom it is anachronistic to label renegades or traitors.
- He didn't want a band of renegades looking to make trouble near his family.
Synonyms
traitor, defector, deserter, turncoat, betrayer;
rebel, mutineer;
quisling, fifth columnist
rare renegado, tergiversator
1.1 archaic A person who abandons religion; an apostate: renegades and Deserters of Heaven, who renounce their God for the Favour of Man...
- These renegades have rebelled against and rejected Heaven and His life, so they must in turn be denied life.
1.2A person who behaves in a rebelliously unconventional manner: he was a renegade and social malcontent...
- Does our new TV image now exclude the drag queen heroes and social renegades who gave rise to the Stonewall revolution?
- In 1970, when I first started rock climbing, I thought it was a sport for renegades and eccentrics, maybe like tree climbing is today.
- Between there and the mainland were only a few scattered fishermen, renegades, loners and eccentrics.
adjective
1Having treacherously changed allegiance: a renegade bodyguard...
- In El Salvador in the 1980s, 55 special forces troops beat back a guerrilla insurgency while gradually integrating renegade militias into a newly professionalized national army.
- The rioters blame the 10,800-strong UN force in Congo for failing to stop Wednesday's capture of the eastern border city of Bukavu by renegade commanders once allied with neighbouring Rwanda.
- The so-called ‘janjaweed,’ to which news reports refer, are a renegade element of the Popular Defense Force.
Synonyms
treacherous, traitorous, disloyal, perfidious, treasonous, rebel, mutinous, rebellious
1.1 archaic Having abandoned one’s religious beliefs: a renegade monk
verb [no object] archaic
Become a renegade: Johnson had renegaded from the Confederacy
Origin
Late 15th century: from Spanish renegado, from medieval Latin renegatus 'renounced', past participle (used as a noun) of renegare, from re- (expressing intensive force) + Latin negare 'deny'.