imperialistn.adj.

1552 King Edward VI Jrnl. in Lit. Remains (1857) II. 421 Duke Maurice..toke all that perteined to imperialistes, as confiscat.

1577 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Chron. vii. 457 With gratefull minds and readie disposition, the imperialists accepted the Emperour Alexander in his requestes.

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes (1610) 689 The imperialists imputed the cause of so shameful a flight unto the Venetians.

1644 J. Vicars Jehovah-jireh 202 Our Romish adversaries the Imperialists, even the most bloody and idolatrous House of Austria.

1656 B. Harris tr. J. N. de Parival Hist. Iron Age i. iv. xv. 124 Favouring the factions, of the Ghelphs, against the Gibellins, or Imperialists.

1677 I. Mather Hist. Disc. Prevalency of Prayer (1864) 249 The Emperour Marcus Aurelius going to war against the Quads, Vandals, Sarmats and Germans..the Imperialists were so cooped up by their numerous Enemies.

1720 D. Defoe Mem. Cavalier 132 Shall we give Battle to the Imperialists, or not?

1783 W. Thomson in R. Watson & W. Thomson Hist. Reign Philip III vi. 447 Count Thorn, having in vain endeavoured to bring the Imperialists to an action..set out for Prague.

1835 A. Alison Hist. Europe during French Revol. III. xxii. 260 Sporck..succeeded in joining the main army of the Imperialists.

1900 Westm. Gaz. 14 Sept. 2/2 It is interesting to note a new use of the word Imperialist in to-day's Daily News: ‘A troop of American cavalry surprised 300 Imperialists at Shaho...’ This is from Pekin—clearly Imperialist is to be the way of distinguishing the Chinese Imperial troops from rebel Boxers.

1926 E. Hutton Story Ravenna viii. 120 Very shortly after the occupation of Ravenna by the imperialists in 540, the reedification of the city and its splendid embellishment was begun.

2007 G. D. Peterson Warrior Kings Sweden xviii. 184 The Swedish army had just started to dig in when the Imperialists attacked.

1800 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. 8 599 These imperious imperialists are so effectually served as to bespeak at the same time a law against their antagonists in courts not allied.

1816 J. Scott Paris Revisited x. 315 People of all parties, royalists, imperialists, and republicans, affected..a fine indignant surprise at the bare suggestion.

1867 R. Tomes Champagne Country viii. 88 Like most thriving French citizen traders..he is an ardent imperialist.

1906 Social-Democrat 15 Feb. 99 The Right would be Royalists and Imperialists, but some of the latter would claim to be Republicans. This section calls itself the ‘Ralliés’.

1971 L. M. Greenberg Sisters of Liberty i. 62 Most imperialists willingly admitted that they regarded the plebiscite on 8 May 1870 as the end of the experiment in liberal empire.

2005 W. H. C. Smith Bonapartes v. 95 The fact that he [sc. Napoleon II] was a child..did not in any way alter the conviction of the diehard imperialists who now focused all their hopes on him.

1879 Spectator 8 Mar. 299/2 The ‘Imperialists’, if they have done nothing else, have made the nation aware of the burden it is carrying, while their policy has perceptibly increased the burden's weight.

1899 G. Wyndham in Daily News 23 Jan. 7/5 An Imperialist..is a man who does accept the fact that his country is a part, is, indeed, the head and heart of an Empire scattered the whole world over.

1899 Nation (N.Y.) 27 Apr. 303/2 English setters-on of American Imperialists are just now loud in their cries that America must not ‘retreat’. They trust we have too much pride and resolution to turn tail in the Philippines.

1900 Congress. Rec. 11 Jan. 766/2 The trouble with these imperialists is that they confound the Government of the United States with their puny President.

1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 113/2 What Kipling was to the aggressive British imperialists, these ads are to our domestic economy. They act as a sort of firing spark in the internal combustion engine.

2004 Foreign Policy July 56/1 When McKinley was elected in 1896, Roosevelt joined the administration as assistant secretary of the navy, but the imperialists primarily made their case through speeches, articles, and books.

2009 A. S. Byatt Children's Bk. (2010) xx. 231 The Imperialists, who supported the British army in the Boer War,..believed in spreading the virtues of British democracy throughout the world.

1948 H. Mukerjee India struggles for Freedom (ed. 2) 227 This ferment is to-day the only thing that enables India's common folk..to defeat the machinations of imperialists and the capitulationism of the leaders.

1963 New Statesman 1 Feb. 145/1 The reported Chinese memorandum..[refers to] Krushchev's ‘capitulationist’ attitudes towards the ‘imperialists’.

1969 Times 8 Aug. 1/2 ‘We all know,’ Mr. Katushev said, ‘how violently the imperialists are fighting on all fronts..to give support to anti-socialist forces.’

2005 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 May 36/4 The bloody purges of class enemies, Trotskyists, capitalist roaders, landlords, imperialists, [etc.].

1658 W. Sanderson Compl. Hist. Life King Charles 797 French and Holland joyned Arguments against all Allies, to deter the Dane from doting on the Emperialist ayd.

1796 Monthly Rev. Aug. 426 The Royalist has not forfeited the support of the Imperialist party, and has necessarily acquired that of the Constitutional.

1823 Edinb. Mag. & Literary Misc. Apr. 505/2 A convention was signed between the leaders of the Imperialist and Republican troops.

1868 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest II. vii. 79 The first of the series of German or other Imperialist prelates.

1879 J. R. Green Readings Eng. Hist. xx. 103 The imperialist theories of the lawyers of his father's court.

1899 J. Pulitzer in Daily News 2 May 4/3 The new departure from our [U.S.] constitutional government which the present imperialist policy means.

1918 Crisis June 72/2 The Conference condemns any imperialist idea which would make these countries the booty of one or several nations.

1957 R. N. C. Hunt Guide to Communist Jargon xxiv. 83 Lenin does not seem to have regarded the actual possession of an empire as essential to it [sc. imperialism], so that, according to his theory, the United States is an imperialist Power, as communist propaganda daily represents it.

1969 Times 8 Aug. 1/2 President Ceausescu [of Rumania] argued that the socialist world was strong enough to safeguard itself against imperialist tactics.

1973 D. Miller Chinese Jade Affair xviii. 174 The K.M.T. group..would probably suggest that K. Lawson was engaged in a typical Western imperialist plot.

2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 4 July iv. 6/3 Europeans..seem to have come to a view of Bush's America as imperialist, at the very least.