Conservative

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Conservative \Con*serv"a*tive\, n.
     1. One who, or that which, preserves from ruin, injury,
        innovation, or radical change; a preserver; a conserver.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The Holy Spirit is the great conservative of the new


              life.                                 --Jer. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. One who desires to maintain existing institutions and
        customs; also, one who holds moderate opinions in
        politics; -- opposed to {revolutionary} or {radical}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Eng. Hist.) A member of the Conservative party.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Conservative \Con*serv"a*tive\, a. [Cf. F. conservatif.]
     1. Having power to preserve in a safe of entire state, or
        from loss, waste, or injury; preservative.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Tending or disposed to maintain existing institutions;
        opposed to change or innovation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Of or pertaining to a political party which favors the
        conservation of existing institutions and forms of
        government, as the Conservative party in England; --
        contradistinguished from {Liberal} and {Radical}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We have always been conscientiously attached to what
              is called the Tory, and which might with more
              propriety be called the Conservative, party.
                                                    --Quart. Rev.
                                                    (1830).
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Conservative system} (Mech.), a material system of such a
        nature that after the system has undergone any series of
        changes, and been brought back in any manner to its
        original state, the whole work done by external agents on
        the system is equal to the whole work done by the system
        overcoming external forces.                 --Clerk
                                                    Maxwell.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  conservative
       adj 1: resistant to change [ant: {liberal}]
       2: opposed to liberal reforms
       3: avoiding excess; "a conservative estimate" [syn: {cautious}]
       4: unimaginatively conventional; "a colorful character in the
          buttoned-down, dull-gray world of business"- Newsweek
          [syn: {button-down}, {buttoned-down}]
       5: conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle
          class; "a bourgeois mentality" [syn: {bourgeois}, {materialistic}]
       n : a person who has conservative ideas or opinions [syn: {conservativist}]
           [ant: {liberal}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  139 Moby Thesaurus words for "conservative":
     Bircher, Bourbon, Epistle side, Methuselah, Tory, antediluvian,
     antique, back number, backward, bitter-ender, careful, cautious,
     centrist, chary, circumspect, clockwise, compromiser, conformist,
     conservational, conservationist, conservatist, conservatory,
     conserving, controlled, conventional, dad, decanal side, dexter,
     dextral, dextrocardial, dextrocerebral, dextrocular, dextrogyrate,
     dextrogyratory, dextropedal, dextrorotary, dextrorse, die-hard,
     diehard, discreet, dodo, elder, extreme right-winger, fogy,
     fogyish, fossil, fud, fuddy-duddy, fundamentalist, granny,
     hard hat, has-been, hidebound, imperialist, keeping,
     laudator temporis acti, longhair, matriarch, mid-Victorian,
     middle-of-the-road, middle-of-the-roader, moderate, moderationist,
     moderatist, monarchist, mossback, neutral, nonprogressive, off,
     old believer, old crock, old dodo, old fogy, old liner, old man,
     old poop, old school, old woman, old-fashioned, old-fogyish,
     old-line, old-timer, opposed to change, orthodox, patriarch,
     politic, pop, pops, preservative, preservatory, preserving, proper,
     protective, prudent, radical right, reactionarist, reactionary,
     reactionist, reasonable, recto, regular old fogy, relic,
     restrained, right, right field, right hand, right of center,
     right side, right wing, right-hand, right-wing, right-winger,
     right-wingish, rightist, royalist, saving, sober, social Darwinist,
     square, stable, standard, standpat, standpatter, starboard,
     starboard tack, starets, stick-in-the-mud, temperate, tory,
     traditional, traditionalist, traditionalistic, true-blue,
     ultraconservative, unexcessive, unextravagant, unextreme,
     unprogressive, wary
  
  

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  19 Moby Thesaurus words for "Conservative":
     Democrat, Labourite, Republican, Tory, Whig, heeler, loyalist,
     partisan, party faithful, party hack, party man, party member,
     party wheelhorse, registered Democrat, registered Republican,
     regular, stalwart, ward heeler, wheelhorse
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  CONSERVATIVE, n.  A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as
  distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with
  others.