McCarthyiteadj.n.

1952 Amer. Hist. Rev. 57 386 The..present period of loyalty and security measures, the Smith Act, McCarthyite ‘witch-hunting’, and certain sensationalist congressional investigations.

1953 N.Y. Times 23 July 20/8 The editorial denounced a House committee investigation of Communistic clergymen... The ‘Daily Worker’ called it ‘the new McCarthyite drive against the integrity and independence of the church’.

1971 Guardian 19 Jan. 10/2 Once people start..wondering about their neighbours, a McCarthyite infection could take hold.

1975 Guardian 25 Nov. 2/7 Peter Nixon, whose portfolios include Interior Affairs and Customs, has appalled many by his McCarthyite accusation of the bland Australian Broadcasting Commission, which he says is run by a ‘nest of pinkoes’ bent on subversion.

1992 N.Y. Times 7 July c15/2 They decided to take some McCarthyite measures to find the leak.

1952 San Francisco Examiner 18 Sept. 3/6 The McCarthyites unquestionably have an appeal, Senator Lehman conceded, since they come before the people as super-patriots.

1954 J. Rorty & M. Decter McCarthy & Communists 118 They are not so much pro- McCarthyites as anti-anti-McCarthyites (opponents of all who oppose McCarthy).

1960 20th Cent. June 578 People who were not active McCarthyites..were none the less sources of strength for him.

1985 W. Sheed Frank & Maisie vi. 122 In a sense, the Coughlinites are quickly familiar: they have surfaced since as McCarthyites and the Moral Majority, though each time, it seems, a little tamer or at least smoother.

1994 Wanderer (St. Paul, Minnesota) 11 Aug. 4/3 The charge back then was that the McCarthyites were morally debased.