Reactionary

Definitions

One who opposes revolution, wanting to reverse it, favoring a return to a past golden age. Often used as a derogatory by revolutionaires.

Equivalents

Examples

“Hindu reactionaries, whose conception of a well-ordered society had not moved beyond the laws of Manu, fell into line for the moment with the intellectual products of the modern Indian University.”

“He was not a drunkard, not a chronic bankrupt. For the rest⟳, Mr. Woodward depicts [Thomas] Paine as a highminded controversialist, persecuted by reactionaries on both sides of the Atlantic for no more than liberal political views.”

“It is not simply a conservative preference for things as they are, with a few nudges back, but a passionate loathing of the status quo and a desire to return⟳ to the past in one emotionally cathartic revolt. If conservatives are pessimistic, reactionaries are apocalyptic.”

CEFR level