Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Characterized by reaction, especially opposition to progress or liberalism; extremely conservative.
- noun An opponent of progress or liberalism; an extreme conservative.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Of or pertaining to reaction in general; consisting of or characterized by reflex or reciprocal action; reactive.
- Specifically Of or pertaining to political reaction; favoring reaction: as, reactionary principles or movements.
- noun A promoter of reaction; specifically, one who attempts to check, undo, or reverse political action.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Being, causing, or favoring reaction.
- noun One who favors reaction, or seeks to undo political progress or revolution.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Opposed tochange ; urging a return to a previous state. - adjective Very
conservative . - noun One who is opposed to change.
- noun One who is very conservative.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extremely conservative
- noun an extreme conservative; an opponent of progress or liberalism
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Consequently, I believe the term reactionary NOW applies in its strictest sense to prog-wacks.
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So if a reactionary is a believer in order, a progressive is — a believer in disorder?
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"I've been much criticized of late," laments the senator over a lavish dinner with lobbyists, "by irresponsible people of course, for what they term my reactionary association with big business."
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Brege said she was interested in the case because it is an example of what she describes as a reactionary, exclusionary and punitive approach used in some Cumberland County schools to deal with discipline issues.
unknown title 2009
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“They throw around the term reactionary so lightly.
Hollywood Infidel 2008
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“They throw around the term reactionary so lightly.
Hollywood Infidel 2008
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The men who wrote it knew all too well what the unlimited reach of a monarch could do, and they knew all too well what it was like to live in reactionary times; the American Revolution was still a vivid and recent memory at the time it was crafted.
What We See 2009
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It doesn't matter though; she'll forever be in reactionary mode based upon her own poor judgment.
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Being reactionary is disprefered in so far as moralistic reaction short-circuits ethical critique (see “The Absence of the Abject” post).
There's No Prescribing Prescriptivism Hal Duncan 2009
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Many of the Americans who sought solace for their frustration and fear in reactionary political movements were drawn from the old lower-middle classes, "men and women clinging precariously to hard-won middle-class lifestyles; people with valued but imperiled stakes in their local communities."
Caught in the Crossfire: Adrian Scott and the Politics of Americanism in 1940s Hollywood 2007
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