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Antonyms for patriots


Grammar : Noun
Spell : pey-tree-uh t, -ot or, esp. British, pa-tree-uh t
Phonetic Transcription : ˈpeɪ tri ət, -ˌɒt or, esp. British, ˈpæ tri ət



Definition of patriots

Origin :
  • 1590s, "compatriot," from Middle French patriote (15c.) and directly from Late Latin patriota "fellow-countryman" (6c.), from Greek patriotes "fellow countryman," from patrios "of one's fathers," patris "fatherland," from pater (genitive patros) "father" (see father (n.)); with -otes, suffix expressing state or condition. Liddell and Scott write that patriotes was "applied to barbarians who had only a common [patris], [politai] being used of Greeks who had a common [polis] (or free-state)."
  • Meaning "loyal and disinterested supporter of one's country" is attested from c.1600, but became an ironic term of ridicule or abuse from mid-18c. in England, so that Johnson, who at first defined it as "one whose ruling passion is the love of his country," in his fourth edition added, "It is sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government."
  • The name of patriot had become [c.1744] a by-word of derision. Horace Walpole scarcely exaggerated when he said that ... the most popular declaration which a candidate could make on the hustings was that he had never been and never would be a patriot. [Macaulay, "Horace Walpole," 1833]
  • Somewhat revived in reference to resistance movements in overrun countries in World War II, it has usually had a positive sense in American English, where the phony and rascally variety has been consigned to the word patrioteer (1928). Oriana Fallaci ["The Rage and the Pride," 2002] marvels that Americans, so fond of patriotic, patriot, and patriotism, lack the root noun and are content to express the idea of patria by cumbersome compounds such as homeland. (Joyce, Shaw, and H.G. Wells all used patria as an English word early 20c., but it failed to stick.) Patriots' Day (April 19, anniversary of the 1775 skirmishes at Lexington and Concord Bridge) was observed as a legal holiday in Maine and Massachusetts from 1894.
  • noun person who loves his or her country
Example sentences :
  • At length the most daring of the "patriots" emitted a tentative hiss.
  • Extract from : « Camps, Quarters and Casual Places » by Archibald Forbes
  • The Patriots intended no rebellion, and they experienced no apprehension.
  • Extract from : « The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 » by Various
  • The Patriots, Bernard says in this letter, did not experience this agitation.
  • Extract from : « The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 » by Various
  • And I am pleased because I was able to free the patriots from the prison-ship.
  • Extract from : « The Dare Boys of 1776 » by Stephen Angus Cox
  • Deivyr and Bryneich were now opposed to the British patriots.
  • Extract from : « Y Gododin » by Aneurin
  • This is a brilliant victory of the patriots over their enemies.
  • Extract from : « The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. IX » by Various
  • He knew the jargon of Liberty, the tune that set the patriots a-dancing.
  • Extract from : « The Historical Nights' Entertainment » by Rafael Sabatini
  • This was the day which Massachusetts now celebrates as Patriots' Day.
  • Extract from : « The Siege of Boston » by Allen French
  • Why, in doing what we are now we are acting as patriots, not as common burglars.
  • Extract from : « The White Lie » by William Le Queux
  • Only, in this country, it seems they kill their own patriots.
  • Extract from : « The Genius » by Margaret Horton Potter

Synonyms for patriots

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019