whig

[hwig, wig]

verb (used without object), whigged, whig·ging. Scot.

to move along briskly.

Origin of whig

1660–70; perhaps Scots variant of dial. fig to move briskly; see fidget

Whig

[hwig, wig]

noun

American History.

a member of the patriotic party during the Revolutionary period; supporter of the Revolution.
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.

British Politics.

a member of a major political party (1679–1832) in Great Britain that held liberal principles and favored reforms: later called the Liberal party.
(in later use) one of the more conservative members of the Liberal party.

adjective

being a Whig.

of, relating to, or characteristic of the Whigs.

Origin of Whig

1635–45; earlier, a Covenanter, hence an opponent of the accession of James II; of uncertain origin, though probably 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 mare¹)

Related formspro-Whig, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for whig

The party splinters, and out of the wreckage a new center-right “Whig Party” emerges.
How the Tea Party’s Apocalyptic Politics Are Destroying the Republican Party|Joe McLean|November 11, 2013|DAILY BEAST
For the first time in a century and a half, the Whig Party has successfully elected a candidate.
Whigs Win For First Time In 150 Years|Ben Jacobs|November 7, 2013|DAILY BEAST
No, not the GOP, but the Whig Party, the original party of Lincoln.
Whigs Win For First Time In 150 Years|Ben Jacobs|November 7, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Talk-show host Glenn Beck called the GOP “the Whig party,” with John Boehner the head Whig for appearing open to compromise.
The GOP’s Kamikazes Are Back|Eleanor Clift|June 22, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Before Abraham Lincoln was a Republican and a staid statesman, he was a Whig and a rabble-rouser.
When Politicians Run Away|David A. Graham|February 19, 2011|DAILY BEAST
All the ancient stories told of him by Whig enemies were revived, and believed by those who had long treated them with contempt.
Martin Van Buren|Edward M. Shepard
It was not a convention of Abolitionists, although Garrison was a member, but of politicians, mostly of the Whig party.
William Lloyd Garrison|Archibald H. Grimke
What Heneage has done already some other Whig with a conscience will do again, and more effectually.
Name and Fame|Adeline Sergeant
Nor was it obvious that a genuine kingship would have been worse than the oligarchy of the great Whig families.
Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham|Harold J. Laski
But Transome's neither Whig nor Tory; he's the workingman's friend, the collier's friend, the friend of the honest navvy.
Felix Holt, The Radical|George Eliot

British Dictionary definitions for whig

Whig

noun

a member of the English political party or grouping that opposed the succession to the throne of James, Duke of York, in 1679–80 on the grounds that he was a Catholic. Standing for a limited monarchy, the Whigs represented the great aristocracy and the moneyed middle class for the next 80 years. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Whigs represented the desires of industrialists and Dissenters for political and social reform. The Whigs provided the core of the Liberal Party

(in the US) a supporter of the War of American IndependenceCompare Tory

a member of the American political party that opposed the Democrats from about 1834 to 1855 and represented propertied and professional interests

a conservative member of the Liberal Party in Great Britain

a person who advocates and believes in an unrestricted laissez-faire economy

history a 17th-century Scottish Presbyterian, esp one in rebellion against the Crown

adjective

of, characteristic of, or relating to Whigs

Derived FormsWhiggery or Whiggism, nounWhiggish, adjectiveWhiggishly, adverbWhiggishness, noun

Word Origin for Whig

C17: probably shortened from whiggamore, one of a group of 17th-century Scottish rebels who joined in an attack on Edinburgh known as the whiggamore raid; probably from Scottish whig to drive (of obscure origin) + more, mer, maire horse, mare 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for whig

Whig

British political party, 1657, in part perhaps a disparaging use of whigg "a country bumpkin" (1640s); 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. In 1689 the name was first used 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 (as early as 1825), and taken as the name of a political party (1834) that merged into the Republican Party in 1854-56.

[I]n the spring of 1834 Jackson's opponents adopted the name Whig, traditional term for critics of executive usurpations. James Watson Webb, editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer, encouraged use of the name. [Henry] Clay gave it national currency in a speech on April 14, 1834, likening "the whigs of the present day" to those who had resisted George III, and by summer it was official. [Daniel Walker Howe, "What Hath God Wrought," 2007, p.390]

Whig historian is recorded from 1924. Whig history is "the tendency in many historians ... to emphasise certain principles of progress in the past and to produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present." [Herbert Butterfield, "The Whig Interpretation of History," 1931]

whig

verb (used without object), whigged, whig·ging. Scot.

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Nearby words

Origin of whig

Whig

noun

adjective

Origin of Whig

Examples from the Web for whig

Whig

noun

adjective

Word Origin for Whig

Whig