Con*serv"a*tive (?), n.
1. One who,
or that which, preserves from ruin, injury, innovation, or radical change; a preserver; a conserver.
The Holy Spirit is the
great conservative of the new life.
Jer. Taylor.
2. One who desires to maintain existing institutions and customs; also, one who holds moderate opinions in politics; -- opposed to revolutionary or radical.
3. (Eng.
Hist.) A member of the
Conservative party.
Con*serv"a*tive (?), a.
[Cf. F. conservatif.]
1.
Having power to preserve in a safe of entire state, or from loss, waste, or injury; preservative.
2. Tending or disposed to maintain existing institutions; opposed to change or
innovation.
3.
Of or pertaining to a political party which favors the conservation of existing
institutions and forms of government, as the Conservative party in England; --
contradistinguished from Liberal and Radical.
We have always been conscientiously attached to what is
called the Tory, and which might with more propriety be called the Conservative, party.
Quart. Rev.
(1830).
Conservative system
(Mech.), a material
system of such a nature
that after the system has undergone any series of changes, and been brought back in any manner to its
original state, the whole work done by
external agents on the system is
equal to the whole work done by
the system overcoming external
forces. Clerk Maxwell.
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