conservative
adjective
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Definition of conservative
(Entry 1 of 2)
conservative
nounDefinition of conservative (Entry 2 of 2)
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Synonyms & Antonyms for conservative
Synonyms: Adjective
archconservative, brassbound, button-down (or buttoned-down), die-hard, hidebound, mossbacked, old-fashioned, old-line, old-school, orthodox, paleoconservative, reactionary, standpat, traditional, traditionalistic, ultraconservative, unprogressive
Synonyms: Noun
archconservative, paleoconservative, reactionary, rightist, right-winger, Tory, traditionalist
Antonyms: Adjective
broad-minded, large-minded, liberal, nonconservative, nonconventional, nonorthodox, nontraditional, open-minded, progressive, unconventional, unorthodox
Antonyms: Noun
leftist, left-winger, lefty, liberal, progressive
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Examples of conservative in a Sentence
Adjective
She is a liberal Democrat who married a conservative Republican. She's more conservative now than she was in college.Noun
His message is being well received by conservatives. proposed legislation that was opposed by conservatives throughout the state
Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective
For all the immediate talk of Oregon being conservative in the second half, Justin Herbert closed the game by completing 18 of his last 20 throws, including the last-second Hail Mary. — James Crepea | The Oregonian/oregonlive, oregonlive, "Statistically speaking: Oregon’s abandoned run game speaks even louder on paper after stunning loss to Auburn," 1 Sep. 2019 This requires doctors to be more conservative when choosing to accept or reject a kidney for their patient. — Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, "US discards thousands of donated kidneys each year as patients die on waitlist, study says," 29 Aug. 2019 Basically the mother-in-law from hell, Mary Louise's conservative wardrobe is easy to replicate (think: lots of collared shirts and delicate scarves). — Caylin Harris, Country Living, "The Best 'Big Little Lies' Costumes That'll Make You One of the Monterey 5 for Halloween," 23 Aug. 2019 Kelly’s stated desire, however, is more conservative. — Gentry Estes, The Courier-Journal, "In the season opener, Notre Dame is expecting the unexpected from Louisville football," 21 Aug. 2019 All of this has come at a time when the Chargers are attempting to be more conservative with their starters. — Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, "Chargers safety Derwin James will miss several weeks because of foot injury," 16 Aug. 2019 Presented as some kind of antediluvian free state for kids, in which play is loosely organized but otherwise unfettered, its conventions are sneakily conservative. — Mac Schwerin, Vox, "The case against summer camp," 16 Aug. 2019 Preemptively flagging the shooter — or one of several far-right killers before him — could have looked like egregious anti-conservative bias. — Casey Newton, The Verge, "Why deplatforming 8chan can be effective," 8 Aug. 2019 Hils said officers tend to be conservative, but Biehl was open about having more liberal views. — Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, "Meet Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl. He's the Elder grad and former Cincinnati Police Department official now in the national spotlight.," 6 Aug. 2019Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
Chris Buskirk, publisher of the journal American Greatness, was among the dozen or so conservatives who, along with Bannon and Amaral, dined with Bolsonaro at the Brazilian ambassador’s residence in March. — David Nakamura, Washington Post, "How Brazil’s nationalist leader built a bond with Trump and won his support in the Amazon fires dispute," 31 Aug. 2019 And isn’t that exactly what advocate groups on the left do to conservatives? — John Kass, chicagotribune.com, "Column: Lamenting the last of Tom Ringhausen’s Calhoun County peaches, so sweet they’ll crack your jawbones off.," 29 Aug. 2019 Their deeply conservative views are not far removed from those of non-evangelical conservatives. — E.j. Dionne Jr., The Mercury News, "Dionne: Why evangelicals continue to embrace Trump," 23 Aug. 2019 That had the effect of enforcing a very bland neutrality in radio and television, one that really favored well-established, orthodox, left-of-center views and conservatives hated that. — Andrew Marino, The Verge, "Podcast: What’s wrong with Congress’ tech policy conversation?," 13 Aug. 2019 National conservatives promise government can rectify this wrong. — George Will, Twin Cities, "George Will: ‘National conservatism’ is ‘Elizabeth Warren conservatism’," 11 Aug. 2019 But almost immediately, conservatives jumped on the idea that Foster was murdered. — Dylan Matthews, Vox, "The conspiracy theories about the Clintons and Jeffrey Epstein’s death, explained," 10 Aug. 2019 But the larger risk for Twitter is that the escalating conflict could reinforce many conservatives' suspicions that Twitter—and Silicon Valley companies more generally—is hostile toward conservatives and Republicans. — Timothy B. Lee, Ars Technica, "Republicans suspend Twitter ad spending after boneheaded video takedown," 8 Aug. 2019 American conservatives consistently have argued that the way to curb violence is not by regulating firearms but by addressing the toxins that make it into the bloodstream of our popular culture. — Gilbert Garcia, ExpressNews.com, "GOP blames toxic popular culture, but not Trump, for violence," 7 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'conservative.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.