pacifistadj.n.

1717 T. Yorke Let. 30 May in J. Clavering Corr. (1967) 140 She has an honest attorney, that will not hurry her into vexatious lawsuits..; and we take all oppertunitys to incline her to a pacifist disposition.

1906 Times 8 Aug. 3/3 M. Paul Fribourg, waxes eloquent to-day in the Petite République in his reproaches of his German comrades for their opposition to the ‘Pacifist League’.

1908 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Dec. 453/3 He made a speech remarkable for its string of pacifist commonplaces.

1918 A. Huxley Let. 3 Mar. (1969) 146 The one blow at the eleventh hour was the Vice Provost's refusal to allow De La Warr's article on Labour and the War to be printed, as being too revolutionary and pacifist.

1936 A. Huxley What are you going to do about It? 4 It has seemed best to state the pacifist case in terms of a series of answers to common antipacifist objections.

1945 Fellowship Aug. 152/1 A fearful responsibility rests upon us who believe in the pacifist way.

1961 E. S. Turner Phoney War xix. 278 Vendors of Fascist, Communist or pacifist literature were liable to be arrested.

1976 Pacifist Jan. 5/2 It doesn't seem to me to be a pacifist way of overcoming things we dislike just to use our position of power (as parents or as government) to impose our will upon the people over whom we happen to have some influence.

1993 Time Out 31 Mar. 149/3 There's a touch of ‘Shane’ in this culture clash between violent men and a pacifist community.

1906 Times 30 July 5/4 The French ‘Pacifists’ will appeal to England's example in order to induce France also to cut down her naval programme.

1917 Atlantic Monthly June 748/1 My friend is a pacifist because he dreads the tantalizing consequences upon himself of resisting aggression by violent physical methods.

1930 W. S. Churchill My Early Life xxvi. 346 I have always been against the Pacifists during the quarrel, and against the Jingoes at its close.

1937 P. S. Mumford Introd. Pacifism ii. 15 The Pacifist believes: 1. That war, i.e. mass murder, as a political policy is morally wrong, and consequently will never produce good results... 2. That security for nations, ideals or personal freedom can be obtained only by non-violent resistance, [etc.].

1961 E. S. Turner Phoney War xiii. 179 There was an arrogance among certain militant pacifists which..prevented them from respecting the views of those who thought freedom worth fighting for.

1970 R. Sampson Anarchist Basis of Pacifism 1 My usage of the term ‘pacifist’ includes only those who live by the principle that they will not intentionally take human life, cost what it may.

1993 R. Shilts Conduct Unbecoming i. ix. 96 He was a pacifist now and wore love beads, long hair, and bell bottoms.

1939 L. Jacobs Rise Amer. Film xiv. 252 [The film] In-Again, OutAgain jibed at the pacifist-minded sweetheart of a preparedness hero.

1992 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 21 July a10/1 The issue for the pacifist-minded Socialists is the newly enacted law allowing Japan to dispatch noncombat troops overseas for the first time since World War II.