/ · 1894 Brewer’s · R · Recreant
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is one who cries out (French, récrier); alluding to the judicial combats, when the person who wished to give in cried for mercy, and was held a coward and infamous. (See Craven.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.