Dictionary

withstander en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English withstonder, equivalent to withstand + -er.

Meanings

1. A person who withstands or resists; an opponent.
   • The ordinary theme and argument of history is war; which may be defined the exercise of violence under sovereign command against withstanders; force, authority, and resistance, being the essential parts thereof. 1650, Walter Raleigh, “A Discourse of the Original and Fundamental Cause of Natural, Customary, Arbitrary, Voluntary and Necessary War”, in The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt., volume VIII (Miscellaneous Works), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1829, page 253
   • Remember what I told you, this wealthy Franklin is proud, fierce, jealous, and irritable; a withstander of the nobility, and even of his neighbours, Reginald Front-de-Bœuf and Philip Malvoisin, who are no babes to strive withall. 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 38:
   • Confidently expecting that you will comply with this request, which is the sequence of your expressed desire, I remain, sir, yours, with the respect offered to a sincere withstander, RUFUS LYON. 1866, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XV, in Felix Holt, the Radical […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 8:

Forms