CONSERVATIVE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Conservative

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/kənsˈərvətɪv/ Listen

adjective

Conservative adj.

1.

Having power to preserve in a safe of entire state, or from loss, waste, or injury; preservative.

2.

Tending or disposed to maintain existing institutions; opposed to change or innovation.

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. "We have always been conscientiously attached to what is called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party."

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.

noun

Conservative n.

1.

One who, or that which, preserves from ruin, injury, innovation, or radical change; a preserver; a conserver. "The Holy Spirit is the great conservative of the new life."

2.

One who desires to maintain existing institutions and customs; also, one who holds moderate opinions in politics; opposed to revolutionary or radical.

3.

(Eng. Hist.) A member of the Conservative party.

See images of 'Conservative'

Etymology of 'Conservative'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Conservative" Quotes from Famous Books

... therefore, is this: that John Russell and the Radicals will take a course on the subject of Reform which will be resisted by the moderate Liberals; and that the result will be a fusion between the moderate Liberals and the large Conservative phalanx. For it is clear that without some degree of support from the Conservatives, no other government can be carried on. As for any lasting or sincere union between Lord Palmerston and Lord John, it ...

— Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. - In Two Volumes. VOL. II. • John Knox Laughton

... 1900 saw an outbreak of religious and anti-foreign fanaticism in China which rapidly assumed alarming proportions. A sect or society known as the Boxers, founded in 1899 originally as a patriotic and ultra-conservative body, rapidly developed into a reactionary and anti-foreign, and especially anti-Christian organisation. Outrages were committed all over the country, and the perpetrators shielded by the authorities, who, while professing peace, encouraged the movement. Thousands of native ...

— Our Sailors - Gallant Deeds of the British Navy during Victoria's Reign • W.H.G. Kingston

... to enjoy a few moments of unconventional liberty. But the bluff had always held good. As my mother used to say: "I know—but then there may be a bulldog now." And that farm was always out of bounds. I relate this for two reasons—to show how stable and conservative a neighborhood was ours, and because on that very farm, and chosen for the very reason which I have related, stood the hollow oak which is to play its majestic ...

— The Spread Eagle and Other Stories • Gouverneur Morris

... doctrine of self-expression at any cost, the right of woman to live her own life regardless of convention, the new theories of governmental organization or lack of organization—one cannot regard Galds as other than a social conservative, who could be considered a radical nowhere outside of Spain. In how many plays does a conventional marriage furnish the facile cure for all varieties of social affliction (Voluntad, La de San Quintn, La fiera, Mariucha, etc.)! The only socialist whom he brings upon the stage—Vctor ...

— Heath's Modern Language Series: Mariucha • Benito Perez Galdos

... a monk of the order of Camaldoli; a conservative artist of the time, who adhered to the manner of Taddeo Gaddi and his disciples, but Fra Angelico appears likewise to have ...

— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

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