militant

Pluralmilitants

1. 1
   adjective

   Aggressive and forceful in supporting an idea, group, or cause, with a readiness to fight for it.

   Her militant stance on environmental policy alienated more moderate colleagues.

   The union adopted an increasingly militant approach during the strike.

   Similarhardline, radical, combative, aggressive, zealous

   Oppositemoderate, conciliatory

   Note

   Here the fighting has moved from the battlefield to the cause. It can take against to name what it opposes, as when Harry E. Wedeck writes in 1961 that a physiological state "is not itself militant against erotic expression." It describes stance and tactics rather than weapons, so unlike the warlike meaning it need not imply any violence at all.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Someone who supports a cause aggressively or refuses to change their position, especially a member of an ideological group.

   Hardline militants within the party rejected any compromise.

   He was branded a militant for his uncompromising stance on the issue.

   Similarradical, extremist, hardliner, zealot, activist

   Oppositemoderate

   Note

   The noun stretches across a wide range, and context decides which end is meant. In activist writing it can be a badge worn proudly: Jean O'Leary is quoted in 1976 saying militants "help keep the rest of us honest" and stop moderates from selling out. In The New York Times and Wikinews in 2008, militants are the armed men of plots and hostage-takings.

3. 3
   adjective

   Engaged in fighting, or inclined to fight; belligerent and warlike.

   The kingdom's militant posture provoked its neighbors into forming an alliance.

   Centuries of militant rivalry left the border region devastated.

   Similarbelligerent, warlike, aggressive, bellicose, combative

   Oppositepeaceful, peaceable, pacific

   Note

   Military service is the root image: Middle French militant, from Latin mīlitāns, "serving as a soldier." The adjective keeps that edge. Before a noun it can name armed conflict outright, as in a militant network blamed for bombings. A militant policy, by contrast, is warlike in spirit rather than in weapons. The comparative is analytic: more militant, most militant.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A supporter of the Trotskyist political position promoted by the newspaper Militant.

   Several militants were expelled from the party after its leaders accused the Trotskyist group of running a party within the party.

   He had been a committed militant since his student days, selling the paper on Liverpool street corners and quoting Trotsky at every branch meeting.

   Note

   A party label borrowed from a newspaper's title: a follower of the Trotskyist tendency grouped around Militant. The word belongs to the vocabulary of communist politics, where it names membership of one faction rather than a temperament. Because the same spelling serves the general hardliner, context usually signals which is meant.

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