republican Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a member of the Republican Party
  2. noun an advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy)
  3. noun a tributary of the Kansas River that flows from eastern Colorado eastward through Nebraska and Kansas
    Republican River.
  4. adjective relating to or belonging to the Republican Party
    • a Republican senator
    • Republican party politics
  5. adjective satellite having the supreme power lying in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them or characteristic of such government
    • the United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government"- United States Constitution
    • a very republican notion
    • so little republican and so much aristocratic sentiment"- Philip Marsh
    • our republican and artistic simplicity"-Nathaniel Hawthorne

WordNet

Re*pub"lic*an adjective
Etymology
F. républicain.
Definitions
  1. Of or pertaining to a republic.
    The Roman emperors were republican magistrates named by the senate. Macaulay.
  2. Consonant with the principles of a republic; as, republican sentiments or opinions; republican manners.
Re*pub"lic*an noun
Definitions
  1. One who favors or prefers a republican form of government.
  2. (U.S.Politics) A member of the Republican party.
  3. (Zoöl.) (a) The American cliff swallow. The cliff swallows build their nests side by side, many together. (b) A South African weaver bird (Philetærus socius). These weaver birds build many nests together, under a large rooflike shelter, which they make of straw.

Webster 1913