Crossword clues for militant
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Militant \Mil"i*tant\, a. [L. militans, -antis, p. pr. of militare to be soldier: cf. F. militant. See Militate.] Engaged in warfare; fighting; combating; serving as a soldier. -- Mil"i*tant*ly, adv.
At which command the powers militant . . .
Moved on in silence.
--Milton.
Church militant, the Christian church on earth, which is supposed to be engaged in a constant warfare against its enemies, and is thus distinguished from the church triumphant, in heaven.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., "fighting, engaged in warfare," from Middle French militant "fighting," from Latin militantem (nominative militans), present participle of militare "serve as a soldier" (see militate), originally especially in Church militant. Related: Militantly.
"one engaged in war or strife," c.1600, from militant (adj.); in a political sense, it is attested by 1907.
Wiktionary
a. 1 fighting or disposed to fight; belligerent, warlike. (from 15th c.) 2 aggressively supporting of a political or social cause; adamant, combative. (from 17th c.) n. 1 (context obsolete English) A soldier, a combatant. (17th-19th c.) 2 An entrenched or aggressive adherent to a particular cause, now especially a member of a particular ideological faction. (from 19th c.) 3 Specifically, someone who supports the Trotskyite political view expressed in the newspaper ''Militant'', or who engages in aggressive left-wing politics. (from 20th c.)
WordNet
adj. engaged in war; "belligerent (or warring) nations"; "a fighting war" [syn: belligerent, fighting, war-ridden, warring]
showing a fighting disposition without self-seeking; "highly competitive sales representative"; "militant in fighting for better wages for workers"; "his self-assertive and ubiquitous energy" [syn: competitive]
n. a militant reformer [syn: activist]
Wikipedia
The English word militant is both an adjective and a noun, and is usually used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier". The related modern concept of the militia as a defensive organization against invaders grew out of the Anglo-Saxon fyrd. In times of crisis, the militiaman left his civilian duties and became a soldier until the emergency was over, when he returned to his civilian occupation.
The current meaning of militant does not usually refer to a registered soldier: it can be anyone who subscribes to the idea of using vigorous, sometimes extreme, activity to achieve an objective, usually political. A "militant [political] activist" would be expected to be more confrontational and aggressive than an activist not described as militant.
Militance may or may not include physical violence, armed combat, terrorism, and the like. The Trotskyist Militant group in the United Kingdom published a newspaper, was active in labour disputes, moved resolutions in political meetings, but was not based on violence, although some confrontations might lead to unarmed fighting. The purpose of the Christian Church Militant is to struggle against sin, the devil and "..the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12), but it is not a violent movement.
A militant is a person engaged in fighting, warfare or combat outside the aegis of a recognized state (e.g. a revolutionary or insurgent, not a member of a regular army).
Militant may also refer to:
- The Militant, an international Communist newsweekly first published in 1928
- Militant faction, an organized grouping in the Socialist Party of America during the 1930s
- Militant Group, a British Trotskyist group of the 1930s
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Militant (Trotskyist group), a British Trotskyist group of the 1960s–1990s; Militant also the title of their newspaper
- Militant in Liverpool, the actions of the above group as Liverpool City Councillors in the 1980s
Militant, commonly called the Militant tendency, was a Trotskyist entryist group in the British Labour Party, based around the Militant newspaper launched in 1964. According to Michael Crick, its politics were influenced by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Leon Trotsky and "virtually nobody else".
In 1975, there was widespread press coverage of a Labour Party report into the entryist tactics of Militant. Between 1975 and 1980, attempts by Reg Underhill and others in the leadership of the Labour Party to expel Militant were rejected by its National Executive Committee, which appointed a Militant member to the position of National Youth Organiser in 1976 after Militant had won control of the party's youth section, the Labour Party Young Socialists.
In 1982, after the Liverpool Labour Party adopted Militant's strategy to set an illegal deficit budget, a Labour Party commission found Militant in contravention of clause II, section 3 of the party's constitution which made political groups with their own "Programme, Principles and Policy for separate and distinctive propaganda" ineligible for affiliation. Militant was proscribed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee in December 1982, and the following year five members of the Editorial Board of the Militant newspaper were expelled from the Labour Party. At this point, the group claimed to have 4,300 members. Further expulsions of Militant activists followed. Militant policies dominated Liverpool City Council between 1983 and 1987 and the council organised mass opposition to government cuts to the rate support grant. 47 councillors were banned and surcharged. The conduct of the Liverpool council led Neil Kinnock, Labour's then leader, to denounce Militant at the 1985 Party Conference. Eventually Militant's two remaining Labour MPs were prevented from being Labour candidates at the 1992 general election.
Between 1989 and 1991, Militant led the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation's non-payment campaign against the Community Charge ("poll tax"). In 1991, Militant decided by a large majority to abandon entryism in the Labour Party. Ted Grant, once the group's most important member, was expelled, and his breakaway minority, now known as Socialist Appeal, continued with the entryist strategy. The majority changed its name to Militant Labour, and then in 1997 to the Socialist Party.
Usage examples of "militant".
We are the militant arm of the Church of the Apocryphal We are the ones who have been tested.
For some reason the sheriff failed to mention that his deputies had already jailed one of the most prominent Chicano militants in the nation.
The Escapee, however, faced with this insurrection of militant pessimism, turned pale and wan and murmured to himself comforting phrases of Kropotkin, etc.
The action planned by the militant expat No-Borders to open the borders.
And a group of militant anti-GM campaigners are being pursued by Interpol, after their announcement that they have spliced a metabolic pathway for cyanogenic glycosides into maize seed corn destined for human-edible crops.
Preceptors of the militant orders are indeed members of the Hierocracy, and the names of the current holders of those offices have been duly entered in the rolls of this body.
The scribes will then draw up suitable documents which each member of the Hierocracy will sign, transferring command of his personal detachment of church soldiers over to the militant orders for the defence of the city.
It was a great solid granite block with little pinchpenny ecclesiastical windows in which goods darkly lay A board above a barred door said Peace Militant.
In Turbat, where his family was from, he courted and married a pretty Baluchistani girl who was the sister of Abu Hashim, a Pakistani militant.
Mama Therese marched ahead with forbidding frown and quivering chins, with the militant carriage of misprized and affronted rectitude.
France, where he came next in 1882, the traditions of the Commune had nourished a militant Anarchist movement of which there was a flourishing group in Lyons.
They were supported by local Jacobin militants who had either been harassed during the federalist ascendancy or who simply enjoyed showing off their anticlerical zeal.
With Lafayette occupied at the front and the complaisant Petion rather than the fretful Bailly as mayor, the militant press and the popular clubs quickly revived their following in the spring of 1792.
The disintegration, during the second half of the twentieth century, of the organizing principles of international affairs - most crucially Empire in the 1960s and Communism in the 1980s - led to the re-eruption of exclusionary, intolerant, and militant nationalism.
Little gilt chairs stood in rows, seeming too frail to bear anyone, and the new Macrobian Knights Militant stood guard like graven mages, gleaming with iron and bronze.