- To recant is to publicly take back something you said or to state that you no longer believe something in which you once believed.
When you say that you no longer hold the religious beliefs you did in the past, this is an example of a situation where you recant.
Origin of recantClassical Latin recantare ; from re-, back, again + cantare, frequentative of canere, to sing: see chant
verbre·cant·ed, re·cant·ing, re·cants
Origin of recantLatin recantāre : re-, re- + cantāre, to sing, frequentative of canere; see kan- in Indo-European roots.
(third-person singular simple present recants, present participle recanting, simple past and past participle recanted)