SUPPORTER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does supporter mean? 

• SUPPORTER (noun)
  The noun SUPPORTER has 5 senses:

1. a person who backs a politician or a team etc.

2. someone who supports or champions something

3. a person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose

4. a band (usually elastic) worn around the leg to hold up a stocking (or around the arm to hold up a sleeve)

5. a support for the genitals worn by men engaging in strenuous exercise

  Familiarity information: SUPPORTER used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPPORTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who backs a politician or a team etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

admirer; booster; champion; friend; protagonist; supporter

Context example:

they are friends of the library

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

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

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "supporter"):

Whig (a supporter of the American Revolution)

verifier; voucher (someone who vouches for another or for the correctness of a statement)

maintainer; sustainer; upholder (someone who upholds or maintains)

toaster; wassailer (someone who proposes a toast; someone who drinks to the health of success of someone or some venture)

sympathiser; sympathizer; well-wisher (someone who shares your feelings or opinions and hopes that you will be successful)

endorser; indorser; ratifier; subscriber (someone who expresses strong approval)

Shavian (an admirer of G. B. Shaw or his works)

seconder (someone who endorses a motion or petition as a necessary preliminary to a discussion or vote)

Roundhead (a supporter of parliament and Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War)

mainstay; pillar (a prominent supporter)

Graecophile; philhellene; philhellenist (an admirer of Greece and everything Greek)

New Dealer (a supporter of the economic policies in the United States known as the New Deal)

loyalist; stalwart (a person who is loyal to their allegiance (especially in times of revolt))

Jacobite (a supporter of James II after he was overthrown or a supporter of the Stuarts)

functionalist (an adherent of functionalism)

free trader (an advocate of unrestricted international trade)

Francophil; Francophile (an admirer of France and everything French)

enthusiast; partisan; partizan (an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of some person or activity)

corporatist (a supporter of corporatism)

Confederate (a supporter of the Confederate States of America)

cheerleader (an enthusiastic and vocal supporter)

Boswell (a devoted admirer and recorder of another's words and deeds)

believer; truster (a supporter who accepts something as true)

anglophil; anglophile (an admirer of England and things English)

Derivation:

support (argue or speak in defense of)

support (be behind; approve of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who supports or champions something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

patron; sponsor; supporter

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

benefactor; helper (a person who helps people or institutions (especially with financial help))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "supporter"):

pillar of strength; tower of strength (a person who can be relied on to give a great deal of support and comfort)

godfather (someone having a relation analogous to that of a male sponsor to his godchild)

patroness; patronne (a woman who is a patron or the wife of a patron)

godparent (a person who sponsors someone (the godchild) at baptism)

angel; backer (invests in a theatrical production)

guarantor; surety; warranter; warrantor (one who provides a warrant or guarantee to another)

Derivation:

support (argue or speak in defense of)

support (be a regular customer or client of)

support (give moral or psychological support, aid, or courage to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who contributes to the fulfillment of a need or furtherance of an effort or purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

assistant; help; helper; supporter

Context example:

they hired additional help to finish the work

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

worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "supporter"):

accomplice; confederate (a person who joins with another in carrying out some plan (especially an unethical or illegal plan))

coadjutor (an assistant to a bishop)

whipper-in (huntsman's assistant in managing the hounds)

water boy; waterer (an assistant who supplies drinking water)

foot soldier; subordinate; subsidiary; underling (an assistant subject to the authority or control of another)

sidesman ((Church of England) an assistant to the churchwarden; collects offerings of money in the church)

secretarial assistant; secretary (an assistant who handles correspondence and clerical work for a boss or an organization)

chief assistant; man Friday; right-hand man (the most helpful assistant)

prompter; theater prompter (someone who assists a performer by providing the next words of a forgotten speech)

powder monkey (someone who carries explosives (as from the magazine to the guns on board a warship))

paraprofessional (a trained worker who is not a member of a profession but who assists a professional)

model; poser (a person who poses for a photographer or painter or sculptor)

fashion model; manakin; manikin; mannequin; mannikin; model (a woman who wears clothes to display fashions)

underboss (an assistant or second-in-command to a chief (especially in a crime syndicate))

birthing coach; doula; labor coach; monitrice (an assistant (often the father of the soon-to-be-born child) who provides support for a woman in labor by encouraging her to use techniques learned in childbirth-preparation classes)

cat's-paw; instrument; pawn (a person used by another to gain an end)

enforcer; hatchet man (one whose job it is to execute unpleasant tasks for a superior)

girl Friday (a female assistant who has a range of duties)

flower girl (a young girl who carries flowers in a (wedding) procession)

facilitator (someone who makes progress easier)

event planner (someone who plans social events as a profession (usually for government or corporate officials))

actor's assistant; dresser (a wardrobe assistant for an actor)

deputy; lieutenant (an assistant with power to act when his superior is absent)

dental assistant (an assistant to a dentist)

bat boy ((baseball) a boy who takes care of bats and other baseball equipment)

attendant; attender; tender (someone who waits on or tends to or attends to the needs of another)

aide; auxiliary (someone who acts as assistant)

Derivation:

support (give moral or psychological support, aid, or courage to)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A band (usually elastic) worn around the leg to hold up a stocking (or around the arm to hold up a sleeve)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

garter; supporter

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

band (a thin flat strip of flexible material that is worn around the body or one of the limbs (especially to decorate the body))

Derivation:

support (be the physical support of; carry the weight of)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A support for the genitals worn by men engaging in strenuous exercise

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

athletic supporter; jock; jockstrap; supporter; suspensor

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

protective garment (clothing that is intended to protect the wearer from injury)

man's clothing (clothing that is designed for men to wear)

 Context examples 

Scientists thought that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes were steady, quiet supporters of their talkative, wire-like neighbors, called neurons.

(Star-like cells may help the brain tune breathing rhythms, National Institutes of Health)

It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive.

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

Fanny would certainly believe him so at least, and must find that her estimation of him was higher than ever when he appeared as the attendant, supporter, cheerer of a suffering brother.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He rose from his chair, and leaning heavily upon his two supporters, he tottered across the room to the dust-covered sideboard.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The younger men were still in favour of the west-countryman, and small odds were to be had either way in proportion to the number of the supporters of each in the different parts of the crowd.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She is a cold-hearted, vain woman, who has married entirely from convenience, and though evidently unhappy in her marriage, places her disappointment not to faults of judgment, or temper, or disproportion of age, but to her being, after all, less affluent than many of her acquaintance, especially than her sister, Lady Stornaway, and is the determined supporter of everything mercenary and ambitious, provided it be only mercenary and ambitious enough.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)