sb. and a. [f. as prec. + -IST. Cf. F. unioniste.]
A. sb. 1. An adherent of or believer in unionism as a political principle or system of organization; esp. one who advocates or supports the formation or maintenance of some particular legislative union.
Usually with initial capital in particularized sense.
1799. Monthly Rev., XXX. 357. [Duigenan] is particularly severe in his criticisms on Lord Minto, a Brother Unionist.
1851. Gallenga, Italy, 41. Nothing … has been more fatal to the cause of Italian federation than a departure from the views of the Unionists.
1887. Mahaffy & Gilman, Alexander’s Empire, xxx. 286. There was a large nationalist party … violently opposed to the unionists,… constantly asserting the right of every Greek state to legislate for itself.
1890. Hatton, By Order of Czar, II. i. [He] was above all things an Imperial Unionist, and would defend to the death the merest scrap of soil over which the flag had ever floated.
b. U.S. A supporter or advocate of the Federal Union of the United States of America; esp. one who during the Civil War of 1861–5 was opposed to Secession.
1830. D. Webster, 1st Sp. on Foot’s Res., Wks. 1851, III. 259. I am a unionist, and, in this sense, a national republican.
1862. Motley, Corr. (1889), II. 94. The anti-slavery men became the Unionists, the slaveholders the Destructionists.
1883. American, VII. 149. A Texas ‘Unionist’ is going to sue the United States for the value of his slaves.
c. British Politics. A member of the political party which advocated or supported maintenance of the parliamentary Union between Great Britain and Ireland; an opponent of Home Rule.
This party was formed in 1886 by the coalition of the Conservatives with those Liberals (Liberal Unionists: see LIBERAL a. 5) who were opposed to Gladstonian Home Rule. While the chief tenet of this party was the maintenance of the Union, its general policy and principles gradually became identified with those of the Conservative party.
1886. Ld. R. Churchill, Sp. at Manch., 3 March. Do you not think that such a party might be formed which might combine all that is best of the politics of the Tory, the Whig, or the Liberal?… Might we not call it the party of the Union? Members of that party might be known as Unionists.
1886. in Pall Mall G., 6 July, 14/1. The opinion … that … the Liberal Unionists are coming to signal grief…. The Unionists have, indeed, pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for Lord Salisbury.
1893. Times, 25 April, 11/1. A representative company of British Unionists to meet the Unionists of Ireland.
2. A member of a trade-union; a TRADE-UNIONIST.
1834. John Bull, 13 July, 219/1. The cases on the Crown side were principally Unionists, charged with administering unlawful oaths.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xv. 327. The life of my friend was … pitched on a … higher tone than that of most of his brother unionists.
1879. T. H. S. Escott, England, I. 282. The charges of conspiracy and violence brought against unionists and unionism.
3. One who desires or advocates the union of churches or congregations. Cf. REUNIONIST.
1852. Newland, Lect. Tractar., 165. We are Tractarians or Unionists or whatever you may please to call us.
1866. G. Talbot, in E. Purcell, Life A. P. de Lisle (1900), I. xv. 408. I think that the sympathy of the Unionists for the Greek Schism is a proof of want of sincerity.
1869. Union Review, 311. The Unionist, whether he be a Roman or an Anglican.
B. attrib. passing into adj. 1. Of or pertaining to, advocating or supporting, a legislative union, esp. that between Great Britain and Ireland.
1816. Scott, Bl. Dwarf, xii. The Unionist courtiers, that have bought and sold old Scotland.
1848. Daunt, Recoll. O’Connell, I. ii. 16. I spoke in reply to a Unionist effusion of Emerson Tennent’s.
1863. Dicey, Federal St., II. 187. The Atlantic Monthly... is … staunchly Unionist, and more or less anti-slavery.
1888. A. J. Balfour, in Times, 2 Oct., 10/1. The union of the Unionist party.
b. Of or belonging to the Unionists or Unionist Party. (Cf. A. I c.)
1886. Pall Mall G., 3 July, 4/1. The utter failure of the Unionist attack … at Stockton.
1890. Rider Haggard, Beatrice, xviii. He knew the head Unionist whip very well.
1897. H. Tennyson, Tennyson, II. 412. The large Unionist meetings throughout Great Britain.
2. Of or belonging to trade-unionism or trade-unionists.
1879. H. Spencer, Data of Ethics, xii. § 78. 211. The unionist principle that the better workers must not discredit the worse by exceeding them in efficiency.
1884. Pall Mall G., 11 Sept., 3/1. The success of the unionist movement.
