stalwart, a. Now literary.
(ˈstɔːlwət, ˈstælwət)
Forms: 4 stalouart, -wart, (stawlouart), stalawrt, 4–5 stallwart, 5 stal(l)uart, stalwert, 4–6, 9 stalwart.
[A 16th c. Sc. form of stalworth a., brought into Eng. use by Scott.]
A. adj.
1. Of persons († and animals): Strongly and stoutly built, sturdy, robust.
| c 1450 Holland Howlat 697 The Stork, stallwart and styth. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 555 On stedis stalwart and strang. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stalwart, stout, strong, hale. 1837 Lockhart Scott IV. vi. 189 A tall and stalwart bag⁓piper. 1856 Miss Mulock J. Halifax i. 1 What would I not have given to have been so stalwart and so tall. |
2. Of inanimate things: Firmly made or established, strong. Now
rare.
| 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 732 A rycht stalwart castell. Ibid. xiii. 14 With wapnys stalwart of steill Thai dang on thame with all thar mycht. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 1136 Tre wark thai brynt..Wallis brak doun that stalwart war off stanys. 1508 Dunbar Tua maritt wemen 384 He..maid a stalwart staff to strik him selfe doune. |
| 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 80 Its old walls, however, are stalwart enough to outlast another set of frescos. |
3. Of persons, their attributes, etc.: Resolute, unbending, determined. Chiefly
mod.| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Katherine) 695 Bad hir be of stawlouart will. |
| 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Black Mousquetaire, The form whose stalwart pride But yester-morn was by his side. 1903 Morley Gladstone I. 69 The duke made his stalwart declaration in the House of Lords against all parliamentary reform. 1905 E. Clodd Animism §17. 99 The stalwart opponents of superstition refused his request. |
† b. Of a fight: Stoutly contested, severe.
Obs.| 1375 Barbour Bruce i. 68 The Machabeys, That..Faucht into mony stallwart stour, For to delyvir thair countre. c 1420 Wyntoun Cron. viii. xxxiii. 5836 He fande þar hard [v.r. stalwart] barganynge. 1513 Douglas æneis x. v. 164 The tyme of batale reddy is at hand, Quhar strenth beis schawyn in stalwart stowr to stand. |
4. Valiant in fight, brave, courageous.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xxix. (Placidas) 250 For-þi mon þu, as stalawrt knycht, to resist hym mak þe bown. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 353 Wondir staluart and strang, to striue in ane stour. ? a 1550 Freiris Berwik 507 in Dunbar's Poems II. 302 Sumthing effrayit, thocht stalwart was his hart. |
| 1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxviii, Whose stalwart arm might brook to wield A blade like this in battle-field. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 332 But afterwards He made a stalwart knight. |
† 5. Of a storm, weather: Violent, tempestuous.
| 1528 Lyndesay Dreme 80 With stalwart stormes hir sweitnes wes suprisit. 1827 Tennant Papistry Storm'd vi. 187 Siccan stalwart weather. |
6. Comb.| 1848 B. D. Walsh Aristoph., Knts. iv. i, The stalwart-fathered goddess. 1871 Palgrave Lyr. Poems 51 Red-faced and stalwart-fashioned Point-blank they came on their foes. |
B. n. 1. A strong and valiant man.
Now only as nonce-use, after 2.
| c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 642 Thair wes na staluart vnstonait, so sterne wes the stound. Ibid. 767 Thair with the stalwartis in stour can stotin and stynt. 1891 Academy 3 Jan. 7/2 Emin's ‘stalwarts’..proving to be for the most part brutal ruffians and abject cravens in the presence of danger. |
2. A sturdy uncompromising partisan;
esp. as a political designation.
In
U.S. politics 1877 and subsequently, an extremist of the Republican party.
| 1881 Nation (N.Y.) XXXII. 415 The epithet ‘Stalwart’ as applied to a class of politicians was first used by Mr. Blaine in 1877 to designate those Republicans who were unwilling to give up hostility and distrust of the South as a political motive. 1890 Times 11 July 9/3 The ‘stalwarts’ of the Radical party, supported the resolution. |
| attrib. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. ii. xlvi. II. 203 The ‘Stalwart’ and ‘Half-breed’ sections of the Republican party. 1907 National Church 15 Oct. 262/1 The ‘stalwart’ section of militant Dissent. |
b. One who is disposed to take an uncompromising position with regard to political, religious, and social questions in general; a ‘doctrinaire’.
rare.
| 1899 Patten Developm. Engl. Thought i. 27, I shall call them stalwarts from their love of doctrines, dogmas, and creeds, and from their inclination to subordinate policy to principle. Ibid. 28 Stalwarts are always impressed by ideals that are clear and simple, by principles that are bold and definite, by creeds that are rigid and exact, and by platforms that are plain and unmistakable. |