CONSERVATIVE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... types by what might be termed its exaggerated freedom. It is a full, free swing with an abandoned follow through. It probably comes from the confidence which has been handed down from generations of golf-playing people. The Scotch are a conservative and deliberate people in most things, but the way they seem to hit a golf ball gives to most observers the impression of carelessness and lack of considered effort. That, I should say," he concluded, with a droll smile, "is enough for ...

— John Henry Smith - A Humorous Romance of Outdoor Life • Frederick Upham Adams

... Latin and Greek, from Orbilius,[52] a teacher of conservative tendencies. Ep. ii. ...

— The Student's Companion to Latin Authors • George Middleton

... Dante.[271] He did not accept the term 'Reformer,' because it implied an organic change in our institutions, and this he deemed both needless and dangerous; but he used to say that while he was a decided Conservative, he remembered that to preserve our institutions we must be ever improving them. He was, indeed, from first to last, preeminently a patriot, an impassioned as well as a thoughtful one. Yet his political sympathies were not with his ...

— The Prose Works of William Wordsworth • William Wordsworth

... space. Dr. Hussey, in 1834, wrote to Sir George Biddell Airy, astronomer royal at Greenwich, suggesting that the perturbation of the orbit of Uranus might be used as the clew for the discovery of the planet beyond. But Sir George was one of those safe, conservative scholars who scorn to follow the suggestions of genius, preferring rather to explore only what is known already. He said in answer that he doubted if the irregularity in the Uranian orbit was in such a state of demonstration as to give any hope of the discovery of the disturbing cause. He doubted ...

— Notable Events of the Nineteenth Century - Great Deeds of Men and Nations and the Progress of the World • Various

... made that dive? even for a few minutes afterwards? He would have given much to know! In theorizing about crime, he had always maintained the motive to be all in all. But now, though unable to controvert the logic of his assertion, he felt it told less than the whole truth. He recognised a divine conservative virtue in straws, and grasped at the smallest! Through the long torture of self-questioning and indecision, let us not follow him. Uncertainty is a ghastly element in such ...

— Idolatry - A Romance • Julian Hawthorne

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