Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A supporter of government by a monarch.
  • noun An American loyal to British rule during the American Revolution; a Tory.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A supporter of a king or of royal government; one who adheres to or upholds the cause of a king against its opponents or assailants.
  • noun In American history, an adherent of the British government during the revolutionary period.
  • noun In French history, a supporter of the Bourbons as against the revolutionary and subsequent governments.
  • Of or pertaining to Royalists or royalism; adhering to or supporting a royal government.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An adherent of a king (as of Charles I. in England, or of the Bourbons in france); one attached to monarchical government.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a monarchist (supporter of monarchy) or supporter of a particular royal régime
  • noun a legitimist, a supporter of a particular royal line, especially one in danger of being dispossessed of a throne or actually dispossessed of such, and claiming to have the better claim to the throne on the basis of line of descent; especially:

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an advocate of the principles of monarchy
  • noun a royalist supporter of Charles I during the English Civil War

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

royal +‎ -ist

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Examples

  • I'm astonished to see comments that it's 'royalist' - from my perspective it was anything but.

    The Guardian World News Peter Bradshaw 2011

  • Many who will be at parties would feel uncomfortable about being labelled royalist.

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • Whoever is at all acquainted with her writings, must be aware that she pretends to be a great republican, and to entertain a most orthodox horror of royalism and the appendages thereof, and that she has called the royalist party in France all the hard names she could find in the most approved collection of opprobrious epithets.

    The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 Various 1821

  • And it was very kind of royalist – kind of a mix of the real Michael Jackson and his alter-ego as the King of Pop.

    Christian Audigier Purchases Michael Jackson Neverland Ranch 2009

  • The British Empire was not allowed to retain the lands and resources that it had legally expropriated under British law in America, and 'royalist' who believed they should were forced to leave.

    Forbes: Paulson Worst Secretary of Treasury 2008

  • The other problem, though, that Giuliani faces is that the Republicans really are a kind of royalist party that believes in the next person in line getting the nomination.

    CNN Transcript Feb 5, 2007 2007

  • He said police had also received information that "royalist" assassins planned to target the accused should they be released.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1996

  • All sorts, men and women, barbers and noblemen, sailors and tradesmen; almost every kind of royalist one could think of; and his opinion was that a royalist never changed.

    The Rover 1923

  • Just as important was the proxy war, in Yemen, between the Nasser backed, secular nationalist government and the CIA-Saudi-SAS backed 'royalist' guerrillas.

    The Guardian World News 2010

  • And so called "royalist" is nothing but parties try to gain mass support from the name of the King.

    SARA - Southeast Asian RSS Aggregator 2009

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