To return to a worse condition or previous bad behavior after showing improvement; to regress morally or spiritually.
Compound of 'back' + 'slide,' originating in Protestant religious terminology around the 1520s to describe believers who lost faith. The metaphor depicts slipping backward down a slope.
The metaphor behind 'backslide' is brilliant—it imagines moral progress as climbing a hill, so losing ground is literally sliding backward, which makes the concept instantly visual and emotionally resonant.
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