Tory: Meaning and Definition of

To•ry

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.

1. of, belonging to, or characteristic of the Tories.
2. being a Tory.
3. (sometimes l.c.) opposed to reform or radicalism; conservative.

-tory

1. a 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).

-tory

1. a 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.