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What is "illiberal"

Crossword clues for illiberal

illiberal
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
illiberal
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ By necessity, the armed forces are illiberal and undemocratic.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Historically the only thing pro-abortion agitation achieved was to make an illiberal establishment look far more feminist than it was.
▪ In the west it is the Roman Catholic Church that holds the most rigid and illiberal religious beliefs.
▪ That doesn't seem to me a shocking or illiberal thing to say.
▪ The final irony is that the kind of liberalism John Torode wants is itself illiberal.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Illiberal

Illiberal \Il*lib"er*al\, a. [L. illiberalis; pref. il- not + liberalis liberal: cf. F. illib['e]ral.]

  1. Not liberal; not free or generous; close; niggardly; mean; sordid. ``A thrifty and illiberal hand.''
    --Mason.

  2. Indicating a lack of breeding, culture, and the like; ignoble; rude; narrow-minded; disingenuous.

  3. Not well authorized or elegant; as, illiberal words in Latin. [R.]
    --Chesterfield.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
illiberal

1530s, "ungentlemanly, base, mean," from Middle French illiberal (14c.), from Latin illiberalis "ungenerous, mean, sordid; unworthy of a freeman," from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + liberalis (see liberal). A sense of "narrow-minded politically; unconcerned with the rights or liberties of others" is attested from 1640s, and might conceivably be revived to take up some of the burden that drags down conservative.

Wiktionary
illiberal

a. restrictive to individual choice and freedom.

WordNet
illiberal

adj. narrow-minded about cherished opinions [syn: intolerant]

Usage examples of "illiberal".

While the ministry on some occasions exhibited all the external signs of moderation and good humour, they, on others, manifested a spirit of jealousy and resentment which seems to have been childish and illiberal.

You have even debased the noblest and most beneficial art that ever engaged the study of mankind, which cannot be too much cultivated, and too little restrained, in seeking to limit the practice of it to a set of narrow-minded, illiberal wretches, who, like the lowest handicraftsmen, claim the exclusive privileges of a corporation.