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conservative

If you are conservative, you aren’t necessarily a card-carrying member of the Republican party (though you might be); it means you resist change.

Conservative has the word conserve in it, which means to hold on to, or save. In a drought, you want to be conservative in your water use. If you don’t get paid that much and don’t want to use credit cards, you’d better be conservative with your money. When we talk about environmental conservation, we mean the protection of natural resources.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: conservative

1	adj n	resistant to change a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas
2	adj	avoiding excess
3	adj	having social or political views favoring conservatism

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: conservative

adj resistant to change

Synonyms: blimpish
pompously ultraconservative and nationalistic; buttoned-up
conservative in professional manner; fusty, nonprogressive, standpat, unprogressive
old-fashioned and out of date; hidebound, traditionalist
stubbornly conservative and narrow-minded; ultraconservative
extremely conservative; orthodox
adhering to what is commonly accepted; right
of or belonging to the political or intellectual right

Antonyms:: liberal
tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition; civil-libertarian
having or showing active concern for protection of civil liberties protected by law; liberalistic
having or demonstrating belief in the essential goodness of man and the autonomy of the individual; favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority; neoliberal
having or showing belief in the need for economic growth in addition to traditional liberalistic values; progressive, reform-minded, reformist
favoring or promoting reform (often by government action); socialised, socialized
under group or government control; welfare-statist, welfarist
of or relating to a welfare state; left
of or belonging to the political or intellectual left; show more antonyms...

adj conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class

Synonyms:: bourgeois, materialistic

: middle-class
occupying a socioeconomic position intermediate between those of the lower classes and the wealthy

adj unimaginatively conventional

Synonyms:: button-down, buttoned-down

: conventional
unimaginative and conformist

n a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas

Synonyms:: conservativist

Antonyms:: liberal, liberalist, progressive
a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties

Examples:: show 6 examples...; hide 6 examples...; Karl Adolf Eichmann
Austrian who became the Nazi official who administered the concentration camps where millions of Jews were murdered during World War II (1906-1962); Paul Joseph Goebbels
German propaganda minister in Nazi Germany who persecuted the Jews (1897-1945); Hermann Wilhelm Goring
German politician in Nazi Germany who founded the Gestapo and mobilized Germany for war (1893-1946); Walther Richard Rudolf Hess
Nazi leader who in 1941 flew a solo flight to Scotland in an apparent attempt to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain but was imprisoned for life (1894-1987); Heinrich Himmler
German Nazi who was chief of the SS and the Gestapo and who oversaw the genocide of six million Jews (1900-1945); Adolf Hitler
German Nazi dictator during World War II (1889-1945)

Types:: show 17 types...; hide 17 types...; capitalist
a conservative advocate of capitalism; conformist
someone who conforms to established standards of conduct (especially in religious matters); fuddy-duddy
a conservative who is old-fashioned or dull in attitude or appearance; hardliner
a conservative who is uncompromising; minimalist
a conservative who advocates only minor reforms in government or politics; mossback
an extremely old-fashioned conservative; neocon, neoconservative
a conservative who subscribes to neoconservatism; extreme right-winger, reactionary, ultraconservative
an extreme conservative; an opponent of progress or liberalism; right-winger, rightist
a member of a right wing political party; square, square toes
a formal and conservative person with old-fashioned views; diehard, traditionalist
one who adheres to traditional views; Bourbon
a reactionary politician in the United States (usually from the South); Blimp, Colonel Blimp
any elderly pompous reactionary ultranationalistic person (after the cartoon character created by Sir David Low); fascist
an adherent of fascism or other right-wing authoritarian views; monarchist, royalist
an advocate of the principles of monarchy; Rip van Winkle
a person oblivious to social changes; Tory
a supporter of traditional political and social institutions against the forces of reform; a political conservative

Type of:: adult, grownup
a fully developed person from maturity onward

adj avoiding excess

“a conservative estimate”

Synonyms:: cautious

: moderate
being within reasonable or average limits; not excessive or extreme

adj having social or political views favoring conservatism

Synonyms: right
of or belonging to the political or intellectual right

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