Antifederalist

[an-tee-fed-er-uh-list, -fed-ruh-, an-tahy-]

noun

1. U.S. History.,  a member or supporter of the Antifederal party.

2. (lowercase),  an opponent of federalism.

Antifederalist

/ -ˈfɛdrə-, ˌæntɪˈfɛdərəlɪst /

noun

1. history a person who opposed the ratification of the Constitution in 1789 and thereafter allied with Thomas Jefferson's Antifederal Party, which opposed extension of the powers of the federal Government

2. (often not capital) any person who opposes federalism

Other Word Forms

• Antifederalism noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Antifederalist¹

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90; anti- + federalist

Example Sentences

The tea party movement that swept Republicans to power in the House in 2010 was a recent manifestation of the antifederalist strain in American politics.

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He argues that the antifederalist legacy had some positive effects, among them the Bill of Rights.

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Perhaps most ominously, one prominent Pennsylvanian identifying himself only as “An Old Whig,” wrote about this in Antifederalist No. 70 and is worth quoting at length:

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Indeed, preserving that right was one of the top demands of the Antifederalist skeptics of the proposed Constitution, and the Seventh Amendment was ratified precisely to preserve that ancient right in the courts of the newly constituted federal government.

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Carver, who carries his Constitution in his shirt pocket even while baling hay, is a product of the same antifederalist ferment that produced such widely divergent events as the Oklahoma City bombing and Ross Perot's recent proposal to launch a new political party.

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