PARTISAN

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does partisan mean? 

• PARTISAN (noun)
  The noun PARTISAN has 3 senses:

1. a fervent and even militant proponent of something

2. an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity

3. a pike with a long tapering double-edged blade with lateral projections; 16th and 17th centuries

  Familiarity information: PARTISAN used as a noun is uncommon.

• PARTISAN (adjective)
  The adjective PARTISAN has 1 sense:

1. devoted to a cause or party

  Familiarity information: PARTISAN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARTISAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A fervent and even militant proponent of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

drumbeater; partisan; zealot

Hypernyms ("partisan" is a kind of...):

advocate; advocator; exponent; proponent (a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "partisan"):

bigot (a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own)

doctrinaire; dogmatist (a stubborn person of arbitrary or arrogant opinions)

Antonym:

nonpartisan (a person who is nonpartisan)

Derivation:

partisanship (an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An ardent and enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

enthusiast; partisan; partizan

Hypernyms ("partisan" is a kind of...):

admirer; booster; champion; friend; protagonist; supporter (a person who backs a politician or a team etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "partisan"):

addict; freak; junkie; junky; nut (someone who is so ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction)

backslapper (someone who demonstrates enthusiastic or excessive cordiality)

balletomane (a ballet enthusiast)

fanatic; fiend (a person motivated by irrational enthusiasm (as for a cause))

gadgeteer (a person who delights in designing or building or using gadgets)

shutterbug (a photography enthusiast)

fan; rooter; sports fan (an enthusiastic devotee of sports)

Derivation:

partisan (devoted to a cause or party)

partisanship (an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A pike with a long tapering double-edged blade with lateral projections; 16th and 17th centuries

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

partisan; partizan

Hypernyms ("partisan" is a kind of...):

pike (medieval weapon consisting of a spearhead attached to a long pole or pikestaff; superseded by the bayonet)

• PARTISAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Devoted to a cause or party

Synonyms:

partisan; partizan

Similar:

party-spirited (devoted to a political party)

tendencious; tendentious (having or marked by a strong tendency especially a controversial one)

Antonym:

nonpartisan (free from party affiliation or bias)

Derivation:

partisan (an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity)

 Context examples 

The display on both sides, the quickness of the one and the steadiness of the other, had excited the partisan spirit of the crowd, and the men were making new bets and increasing original bets.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But if the ring can breed bright virtues, it is but a partisan who can deny that it can be the mother of black vices also, and we were destined that morning to have a sight of each.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Chesterton set the whole world laughing with a series of alleged non-partisan essays on the subject, and the whole affair, controversy and controversialists, was well-nigh swept into the pit by a thundering broadside from George Bernard Shaw.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)