Also 7–8 whigish, 8 wiggish. [f. WHIG sb.2 + -ISH1.] = WHIG a.; also, Having or indicating something of the character of a Whig, inclined to Whiggism. (Usually hostile or contemptuous.)
1680. Roxb. Ball. (1883), IV. 637. Great York in favour does remain, In spight of all the Whigish train.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 23 (1713), I. 150. I scorn the Trade of Lying, if it were for nothing else, but that it makes a Man look so Whiggish.
1684. in T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass. (1795), I. 308, note. I suspect you, of the Massachusetts, are more whiggish, and your neighbours more toryish, to express it in the language of late in use.
1705. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. 20. Mix’d with some High Church Vindications Against false Whiggish Defamations.
1779. Burke, Corr. (1844), II. 270. Your liberal, wise, and truly whiggish principles.
1790. Burns, Epit. Capt. M— H—, viii. If ony whiggish whingin sot, To blame poor Matthew dare, man.
1813. Miss Mitford, 11 April, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. vii. 229. If not a Reformer I am nothing; for I have as pretty a contempt for the ministers as my whiggish papa.
1816. Scott, Antiq., v. The whiggish and perverse opposition to established rank and privilege.
† b. fig. Rebellious, factious. Obs. slang.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Whiggish, Factious, Seditious, Restless, Uneasy.
c. transf. Liberal, ‘broad’: cf. LIBERAL a. 4 b.
1715. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. Pref. 17. In the same fourth Century there were some Whiggish Pamphlets publish’d by some Moderate Heathens.
1907. P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching, iv. 120. They gave the gnostics a huge advantage over the whiggish apologists and their liberal Christianity.
Hence Whiggishly adv., Whiggishness.
1681. T. Flatman, Heraclitus Ridens, No. 32. (1713), I. 209. That was as *Whiggishly objected as ever I heard in my Life.
1684. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), I. 295. There have been commissioners appointed, who … have turn’d out those persons in hospitalls and other publick places who are whiggishly inclined.
1728. Swift, Lett. to Sheridan, 18 Sept. I fancy you may do some good with the Primate,… if you wheedle him and talk a little Whiggishly.
1818. Hogg, Brownie of Bodsbeck, xii. Whiggishly inclined.
1889. Academy, 16 Nov., 311/1. Mr. Walpole has himself that trait of *Whiggishness which peculiarly fits him to paint the portrait of the chief of the Whigs.
1920. Blackw. Mag., March, 402/2. Johnson would have tolerated his coxcombry as little as he would have borne with his inveterate Whiggishness.
