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Whigs

 - 4 dictionary results

whig

  [hwig, wig]
Use Whigs in a Sentence
–verb (used without object), whigged, whig⋅ging. Scot.
to move along briskly.
Origin:
1660–70; perh. Scots var. of dial. fig to move briskly; see fidget

Whig

  [hwig, wig]
–noun
1. American History.
a. a member of the patriotic party during the Revolutionary period; supporter of the Revolution.
b. a member of a political party (c1834–1855) that was formed in opposition to the Democratic party, and favored economic expansion and a high protective tariff, while opposing the strength of the presidency in relation to the legislature.
2. British Politics.
a. a member of a major political party (1679–1832) in Great Britain that held liberal principles and favored reforms: later called the Liberal party.
b. (in later use) one of the more conservative members of the Liberal party.
–adjective
3. being a Whig.
4. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Whigs.
Origin:
1635–45; earlier, a Covenanter, hence an opponent of the accession of James II; of uncert. orig., though prob. in part a shortening of whiggamaire (later whiggamore), a participant in the Whiggamore Raid a march against the royalists in Edinburgh launched by Covenanters in 1648 (said to represent whig to spur on (cf. whig ) + maire mare 1 )
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Whig   (hwĭg, wĭg)   
n.  

  1. A member of an 18th- and 19th-century British political party that was opposed to the Tories.

  2. A supporter of the war against England during the American Revolution.

  3. A 19th-century American political party formed to oppose the Democratic Party and favoring high tariffs and a loose interpretation of the Constitution.


[Probably short for Whiggamore, a member of a body of 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian rebels.]
Whig'ger·y n., Whig'gish adj., Whig'gism n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Whig 
British political party, 1657, in part perhaps a disparaging use of whigg "a country bumpkin" (c.1645); but mainly a shortened form of Whiggamore (1649) "one of the adherents of the Presbyterian cause in western Scotland who marched on Edinburgh in 1648 to oppose Charles I." Perhaps originally "a horse drover," from dialectal verb whig "to urge forward" + mare. The name was first used 1689 in reference to members of the British political party that opposed the Tories. American Revolution sense of "colonist who opposes Crown policies" is from 1768. Later it was applied to opponents of Andrew Jackson (1825), and taken as the name of a political party (1834) that merged into the Republican Party in 1854-56. Whig historian "one who views history as an inevitable march of progress" is recorded from 1924.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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