REPUBLICAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Republican mean? 

• REPUBLICAN (noun)
  The noun REPUBLICAN has 3 senses:

1. a member of the Republican Party

2. an advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy)

3. a tributary of the Kansas River that flows from eastern Colorado eastward through Nebraska and Kansas

  Familiarity information: REPUBLICAN used as a noun is uncommon.

• REPUBLICAN (adjective)
  The adjective REPUBLICAN has 2 senses:

1. relating to or belonging to the Republican Party

2. having the supreme power lying in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them or characteristic of such government

  Familiarity information: REPUBLICAN used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• REPUBLICAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A member of the Republican Party

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Republican" is a kind of...):

pol; political leader; politician; politico (a person active in party politics)

Holonyms ("Republican" is a member of...):

GOP; Republican Party (the younger of two major political parties in the United States; GOP is an acronym for grand old party)

Derivation:

republican (relating to or belonging to the Republican Party)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("republican" is a kind of...):

advocate; advocator; exponent; proponent (a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea)

Derivation:

republican (having the supreme power lying in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them or characteristic of such government)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A tributary of the Kansas River that flows from eastern Colorado eastward through Nebraska and Kansas

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Republican; Republican River

Instance hypernyms:

river (a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek))

Holonyms ("Republican" is a part of...):

Centennial State; CO; Colo.; Colorado (a state in west central United States in the Rocky Mountains)

Kan.; Kansas; KS; Sunflower State (a state in midwestern United States)

Cornhusker State; NE; Neb.; Nebraska (a midwestern state on the Great Plains)

• REPUBLICAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Relating to or belonging to the Republican Party

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Republican party politics

Pertainym:

Republican Party (the younger of two major political parties in the United States; GOP is an acronym for grand old party)

Derivation:

Republican (a member of the Republican Party)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having the supreme power lying in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them or characteristic of such government

Context example:

our republican and artistic simplicity

Similar:

democratic (characterized by or advocating or based upon the principles of democracy or social equality)

Derivation:

republican (an advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy))

 Context examples 

"We'll make a good Republican out of you yet," said Judge Blount.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The republican institutions of our country have produced simpler and happier manners than those which prevail in the great monarchies that surround it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I saw plainly how you would look; and heard your impetuous republican answers, and your haughty disavowal of any necessity on your part to augment your wealth, or elevate your standing, by marrying either a purse or a coronet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In America, as everyone knows, girls early sign the declaration of independence, and enjoy their freedom with republican zest, but the young matrons usually abdicate with the first heir to the throne and go into a seclusion almost as close as a French nunnery, though by no means as quiet.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a British peeress.’

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His poem won the first prize of ten dollars, his campaign song the second prize of five dollars, his essay on the principles of the Republican Party the first prize of twenty-five dollars.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"I am a Republican," Mr. Morse put in lightly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Thus, in addition to the cousins Dorothy and Florence, Martin encountered two university professors, one of Latin, the other of English; a young army officer just back from the Philippines, one-time school-mate of Ruth's; a young fellow named Melville, private secretary to Joseph Perkins, head of the San Francisco Trust Company; and finally of the men, a live bank cashier, Charles Hapgood, a youngish man of thirty-five, graduate of Stanford University, member of the Nile Club and the Unity Club, and a conservative speaker for the Republican Party during campaigns—in short, a rising young man in every way.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)