Whig

¹ American  

[hwig, wig] / ʰwɪg, wɪg /

noun

1. American History.

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

   2. 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.

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

   2. (in later use) one of the more conservative members of the Liberal party.

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adjective

1. being a Whig.

2. of, relating to, or characteristic of the Whigs.

whig ² American  

[hwig, wig] / ʰwɪg, wɪg /

verb (used without object)

Scot.

whigged, whigging

1. to move along briskly.

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Whig British  

/ wɪɡ /

noun

1. 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

2. (in the US) a supporter of the War of American Independence Compare Tory

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

4. a conservative member of the Liberal Party in Great Britain

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

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

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adjective

1. of, characteristic of, or relating to Whigs

Other Word Forms

• Whiggery noun
• Whiggish adjective
• Whiggishly adverb
• Whiggishness noun
• anti-Whig adjective
• pro-Whig adjective

Etymology

Origin of Whig¹

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 ( whig ) + maire mare ¹ )

Origin of whig¹

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

Example Sentences

The two Whig parliamentarians seemed to have little in common.

From The Wall Street Journal

Before addressing current threats to democracy, though, the author offers a fresh and bracing analysis of the address in the context of 1838—not as a standard Whig polemic against violence or as a jeremiad about some future tyranny but as a “dark, prophetic, and civil sermon on race and democracy . . . a speech that defined Lincoln and his beliefs for decades to come.”

From The Wall Street Journal

William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was the last commander in chief born a British subject and the first member of the Whig Party to win the White House.

From Los Angeles Times

Apart from the fact that the very name “Whig” arouses mirth, the party’s besetting weakness was its attempt to remain a national party by straddling the issue of slavery and splitting the difference with temporary compromises that satisfied neither its northern nor southern supporters and eventually blew up the party.

From Salon

He views the Whig Party, at that time the party of the rule of law, public education, industrial development and expansion of rights, as the party of the future, despite its weakness against the Jacksonian Democrats.

From Salon