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Meaning of renegade in English:

renegade

Pronunciation /ˈrɛnɪɡeɪd/

See synonyms for renegade

Translate renegade into Spanish

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.’
    • ‘This is the first time there was a significant capture of renegades.’
    • ‘He must understand that the threat posed by police involvement in organised crime extends far beyond a public relations problem, and must make good on his promise to take firm action against the renegades under his command.’
    • ‘I think it is an unfortunate fact that we are faced with a small band of renegades who are professional killers and who will continue to try to attack us to effectively roll back the tide of history.’
    • ‘Euthanasia advocates in the US yesterday said her assisted suicide was facilitated by renegades prepared to operate outside the law for money.’
    • ‘This voice, of course, was not heard, and they were branded as renegades to the cause of liberty.’
    • ‘David Morse, as an American engineer, faces horrific conditions after being kidnapped by Colombian renegades.’
    • ‘Today, growing fears that military renegades may have hatched a conspiracy to attempt to aid the enemy.’
    • ‘The thesis was simple: only a small minority of renegades had acted against their own nation.’
    • ‘And in The Last Samurai, our most American-as-apple-pie actor, Tom Cruise, falls in love with Japanese warrior ways and becomes a renegade from the American army.’
    • ‘You are to capture these four renegades and bring them to me alive.’
    • ‘There is no proof that it was us who attacked your home… they were renegades.’
    • ‘As was the custom after a successful major raid, the renegades had a celebration involving singing, dancing, giving out names to those who had earned them, and, of course, drinking.’
    • ‘I suppose I forgot to mention it, but as a rule we don't allow renegades to partake in raids on the houses they used to belong to.’
    • ‘The renegades, aptly named the Wolves, were formed when, having deserted their battalions for unknown reasons, they met in a gully off the coast somewhere below Twofold Bay.’
    • ‘Because of fuel thieves and pipeline saboteurs, pump stations had to conduct frequent patrols, especially at night when the Iraqi renegades would hide under the cover of darkness.’
    • ‘By courier, winged messenger and hand-scroll, the spies among the renegades had informed him of their movements toward his walled capital.’
    traitor, defector, deserter, turncoat, betrayer
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    1. 1.1archaic 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.’
    2. 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.’
      • ‘The gay scene was sort of a safe haven for any sort of social misfit or renegade.’
      • ‘We've got your special look at radio's original renegade.’
      • ‘The ‘fourth wall’ of performance means about as much to these devil-may-care renegades as the no-white-after-Labour-Day rule that fashion fascists love to impose on free spirits.’
      • ‘‘They were renegades back then, and I guess we still are,’ said the veteran pilot and editor-in-chief of Ultralight Flying!’
      • ‘There is an unhealthy acceptance of the bad boys of sport as evidenced by last week's telly programme depicting renegades in a ‘sympathetic’ light.’
      • ‘Some renegades, however, are out of the closet and proudly displaying fake whiskers and five-o'clock shadow, along with suits, boots and suspenders.’
      • ‘Out of over 30 cousins on one side alone, there are few renegades, and any sort of self-reliance is seen as catastrophic, or worse, deluded.’
      • ‘There's a reason that this outfit of hip hop renegades are on Warp.’
      • ‘He knew that he needed to assemble a team of renegades, so he personally interviewed every employee, seeking out those who could handle the demands of such an entrepreneurial environment.’
      critic, sceptic, questioner
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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.’
    • ‘The controversy follows close on the heels of the FY99 Appropriations Bill Report which noted China was increasing its readiness and ability to take back what China considers to be the renegade province.’
    • ‘The renegade commander had returned to a small village in the middle of an opium-growing area and had taken up residence with up to 300 gun-toting supporters.’
    • ‘There was no claim of responsibility, but renegade groups in one militia have said they will not observe the truce.’
    • ‘And for us to say it's just a few renegade soldiers, listen, I know that those were the ones on the photographs, but there were others who were derelict in their duty.’
    • ‘The experience of the war on drugs suggests that if he is killed, another renegade warlord is likely to take his place and that even greater regional - even global - instability may result.’
    • ‘He has been claiming that such mass killings are the handiwork of the security forces themselves directly or through the renegade militants under control of official agencies.’
    • ‘Soon, however, that report was shot down, and the standoff, pitting a renegade cleric against the powers that be, was right back where it began.’
    • ‘Parents panic and one renegade cop goes berserk, in footage that is clearly recalling the riots of the previous decade and a half, from Watts to Kent State.’
    • ‘To this end, he has assembled not only his amazing array of weapons and inventions, but also a small army who serve as his renegade security force and ship's crew.’
    • ‘But a Shiah leader said the attackers may have been renegade tribal factions from within the Shiah community.’
    • ‘After fighting a successful duel with a local drunken bully, the man earns the reputation of being a terrifying warrior and is ordered by his lord to execute a renegade samurai.’
    • ‘The tour has apparently upset China, which claims Taiwan as a renegade province.’
    • ‘China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and seeks to isolate it diplomatically.’
    • ‘Renegade warlords and militants now control much of the main island of Guadalcanal.’
    • ‘He worried about thieves and renegade soldiers but none crossed his path as he galloped boldly through woods and desert.’
    • ‘Each tactical mission you complete gains insight into the greater objectives of the renegade faction of this global energy consortium.’
    treacherous, traitorous, disloyal, perfidious, treasonous, rebel, mutinous, rebellious
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    1. 1.1archaic 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’.