| / English Dictionary |
POLITICIAN
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person active in party politics
Synonyms:
pol; political leader; politician; politico
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("politician" is a kind of...):
leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "politician"):
Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin; Grigori Potemkin; Grigori Potyokin; Potemkin; Potyokin (a Russian officer and politician who was a favorite of Catherine II and in 1762 helped her to seize power; when she visited the Crimea in 1787 he gave the order for sham villages to be built (1739-1791))
Whig (a member of the Whig Party that existed in the United States before the American Civil War)
technocrat (an advocate of technocracy)
national leader; solon; statesman (a man who is a respected leader in national or international affairs)
standard-bearer (an outstanding leader of a political movement)
socialist (a political advocate of socialism)
sachem (a political leader (especially of Tammany Hall))
Republican (a member of the Republican Party)
party liner; party man (a member of a political party who follows strictly the party line)
boss; party boss; political boss (a leader in a political party who controls votes and dictates appointments)
noncandidate (someone who has announced they are not a candidate; especially a politician who has announced that he or she is not a candidate for some political office)
Mugwump (someone who bolted from the Republican Party during the U.S. presidential election of 1884)
hack; machine politician; political hack; ward-heeler (a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends)
Labourite (a member of the British Labour Party)
Federalist (a member of a former political party in the United States that favored a strong centralized federal government)
Democrat (a member of the Democratic Party)
demagog; demagogue; rabble-rouser (a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular passions and prejudices)
Communist (a member of the communist party)
campaigner; candidate; nominee (a politician who is running for public office)
Instance hyponyms:
Jackson; Jesse Jackson; Jesse Louis Jackson (United States civil rights leader who led a national campaign against racial discrimination and ran for presidential nomination (born in 1941))
Glenda Jackson; Jackson (English film actress who later became a member of British Parliament (born in 1936))
Andre Maginot; Maginot (French politician who proposed the Maginot Line (1877-1932))
Joseph McCarthy; Joseph Raymond McCarthy; McCarthy (United States politician who unscrupulously accused many citizens of being Communists (1908-1957))
Daniel Patrick Moynihan; Moynihan (United States politician and educator (1927-2003))
Mullah Mohammed Omar; Mullah Omar (reclusive Afghanistani politician and leader of the Taliban who imposed a strict interpretation of shariah law on Afghanistan (born in 1960))
Peel; Robert Peel; Sir Robert Peel (British politician (1788-1850))
Jeannette Rankin; Rankin (leader in the women's suffrage movement in Montana; the first woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives (1880-1973))
Nellie Ross; Nellie Tayloe Ross; Ross (a politician in Wyoming who was the first woman governor in the United States (1876-1977))
Seward; William Henry Seward (United States politician who as Secretary of State in 1867 arranged for the purchase of Alaska from Russia (known at the time as Seward's Folly) (1801-1872))
Daniel Webster; Webster (United States politician and orator (1782-1817))
Houston; Sam Houston; Samuel Houston (United States politician and military leader who fought to gain independence for Texas from Mexico and to make it a part of the United States (1793-1863))
Douglas; Little Giant; Stephen A. Douglas; Stephen Arnold Douglas (United States politician who proposed that individual territories be allowed to decide whether they would have slavery; he engaged in a famous series of debates with Abraham Lincoln (1813-1861))
Crockett; David Crockett; Davy Crockett (United States frontiersman and Tennessee politician who died at the siege of the Alamo (1786-1836))
Clinton; DeWitt Clinton (United States politician who as governor of New York supported the project to build the Erie Canal (1769-1828))
Clay; Henry Clay; the Great Compromiser (United States politician responsible for the Missouri Compromise between free and slave states (1777-1852))
Charles Joseph Clark; Clark; Joe Clark (Canadian politician who served as prime minister (1939-))
Chase; Salmon P. Chase; Salmon Portland Chase (United States politician and jurist who served as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court (1808-1873))
Aaron Burr; Burr (United States politician who served as vice president under Jefferson; he mortally wounded his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a duel and fled south (1756-1836))
Boy Orator of the Platte; Bryan; Great Commoner; William Jennings Bryan (United States lawyer and politician who advocated free silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school (1860-1925))
Bradley; Thomas Bradley; Tom Bradley (United States politician who was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles (1917-1998))
1st Baron Beaverbrook; Beaverbrook; William Maxwell Aitken (British newspaper publisher and politician (born in Canada); confidant of Winston Churchill (1879-1964))
Alben Barkley; Alben William Barkley; Barkley (United States politician and lawyer; vice president of the United States (1877-1956))
Astor; Nancy Witcher Astor; Viscountess Astor (British politician (born in the United States) who was the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons (1879-1964))
Derivation:
politics (the profession devoted to governing and to political affairs)
politics (social relations involving intrigue to gain authority or power)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A leader engaged in civil administration
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("politician" is a kind of...):
leader (a person who rules or guides or inspires others)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "politician"):
governor (the head of a state government)
legislator (someone who makes or enacts laws)
city manager; mayor (the head of a city government)
Derivation:
politics (the profession devoted to governing and to political affairs)
politics (social relations involving intrigue to gain authority or power)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A schemer who tries to gain advantage in an organization in sly or underhanded ways
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("politician" is a kind of...):
plotter; schemer (a planner who draws up a personal scheme of action)
Context examples:
And there, as they slowly paced the gradual ascent, heedless of every group around them, seeing neither sauntering politicians, bustling housekeepers, flirting girls, nor nursery-maids and children, they could indulge in those retrospections and acknowledgements, and especially in those explanations of what had directly preceded the present moment, which were so poignant and so ceaseless in interest.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I burnt for the more active life of the world—for the more exciting toils of a literary career—for the destiny of an artist, author, orator; anything rather than that of a priest: yes, the heart of a politician, of a soldier, of a votary of glory, a lover of renown, a luster after power, beat under my curate's surplice.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
In her secret soul, however, she decided that politics were as bad as mathematics, and that the mission of politicians seemed to be calling each other names, but she kept these feminine ideas to herself, and when John paused, shook her head and said with what she thought diplomatic ambiguity, Well, I really don't see what we are coming to.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It mustn't prevent politicians from taking action.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
He had been on intimate terms with the leading politicians of several countries.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
It is now up to politicians to take a decision based on the expertise and to impose a precautionary principle, which is what I tried to do in my report, or at least a principle of reason.
(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)
I am not in the least provoked at the sight of a lawyer, a pickpocket, a colonel, a fool, a lord, a gamester, a politician, a whoremonger, a physician, an evidence, a suborner, an attorney, a traitor, or the like; this is all according to the due course of things: but when I behold a lump of deformity and diseases, both in body and mind, smitten with pride, it immediately breaks all the measures of my patience; neither shall I be ever able to comprehend how such an animal, and such a vice, could tally together.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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