Quranic root
نكص
n · k · ṣ
The root centers on shrinking back, retreating, or turning away from something.
Its core development is withdrawal from an undertaking, especially through apprehension or cowardice; it can also describe turning back from a course previously pursued, including a good course.
- Maqāyīs · row 4747
- Lane · entry 44537
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 1
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
نَكَصَ
nakaṣa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To shrink back from, recoil from, or turn away from a matter; to retreat or desist from it, including turning back from a course already undertaken.
Used with عَنْ for withdrawing or refraining from a matter. The construction عَلَى عَقِبَيْهِ expresses turning back from something previously undertaken. Fear or awe may motivate the withdrawal, but is not an obligatory semantic condition; the matter abandoned may be good or evil.
- Lane · entry 44537
- Mufradāt · row 1486
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:48word 19
“he turned away”
Quran 23:66word 9
“turn back”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 2 Classical meanings
نَاكِصٌ
Receding or diminishing, especially of a person's lot or good fortune.
Attested in an idiomatic description of one's share or fortune as withdrawing or declining.
- Lane · entry 44539
مَنْكَصٌ
A place of retreat or withdrawal; a remote place to which one removes or retires.
A noun of place, comparable to مُتَنَحًّى.
- Lane · entry 44540
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
Lane's supplied printed Quran reference to “xxiii. 68” is preserved only as evidence for a Quranic construction and is not normalized into a modern verse location; the examples use only the independently supplied QAC locations.