Dictionary![]() ![]() To•ryPronunciation: (tôr'ē, tōr'ē), [key] —n., pl. -ries, for 1–5, —adj. —n. 1. a member of the Conservative Party in Great Britain or Canada. 2. a member of a political party in Great Britain from the late 17th century to about 1832 that favored royal authority over Parliament and the preservation of the existing social and political order: succeeded by the Conservative party. 3. (often l.c.) an advocate of conservative principles; one opposed to reform or radicalism. 4. a person who supported the British cause in the American Revolution; a loyalist. 5. (in the 17th century) a dispossessed Irishman who resorted to banditry, esp. after the invasion of Oliver Cromwell and suppression of the royalist cause (1649–52). 6. a male or female given name. —adj. 1. of, belonging to, or characteristic of the Tories. 2. being a Tory. 3. (sometimes l.c.) opposed to reform or radicalism; conservative. -torya suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, orig. adjectival derivatives of agent nouns ending in -tor (predatory); also forming adjectival derivatives directly from verbs (obligatory; transitory). -torya suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, usually derivatives from agent nouns ending in -tor or directly from verbs, denoting a place or object appropriate for the activity of the verb: dormitory; repository. Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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