• IPA: /ɹəˈkænt/

recant (recants, present participle recanting; past and past participle recanted)

1. (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, Thesaurus:recant

   Convince me that I am wrong, and I will recant.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     How soon […] ease would recant / Vows made in pain, as violent and void!

• French: rétracter, se rétracter, retirer
• German: zurücknehmen, zurückziehen, widerrufen
• Russian: отрека́ться
• Spanish: retractarse

• recantation
• recanter