dissenter
(dɪˈsɛntə(r))
Also 7 -or, -our.
[f. dissent v. + -er1.]
1. One who dissents in any matter: one who disagrees with any opinion, resolution, or proposal; a dissentient.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. ii. §74 If the Question had been presently put, it was believed the number of the dissenters would not have appeared great. 1651 Hobbes Govt. & Soc. vi. §2. 87 If any one will not consent..the City retaines its primitive Right against the Dissentour, that is the Right of War, as against an Enemy. 1717 Pope Let. to Lady M.W. Montagu June, There is nothing like a coalition but at the masquerade; however, the Princess is a dissenter from it. 1728 Morgan Algiers II. i. 211 Some think fit to be Dissenters; assuring us that Cæsaria stood elsewhere. 1869 Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 213 Mr. Arnold, with whose clear and critical spirit it is always good to come in contact, as disciple or as dissenter. 1875 Grote Plato Pref. 7 These dissenters from the public will be more or less dissenters from each other. |
2. One who dissents in matters of religious belief and worship:
a. in the general sense.
| 1639 Ld. G. Digby Lett. conc. Relig. (1651) 88 The dissentors may well have bin over-born or supprest. 1644 in Thomasson Tracts (Br. Mus.) CLXXXVIII. No. 5. 36 By accommodation I understand an agreement of dissenters with the rest of the Church in practical conclusions. 1649 Owen Disc. Toleration Wks. 1855 VIII. 193 The present differences which are between those dissenters who are known by the names of Presbyterians and Independents..Neither party..dare avow the manner of worship by their dissenters embraced to be, as such, rejected by the Lord. 1678 Dryden All for Love Ded., Its discipline is..so easy, that it allows more freedom to dissenters than any of the sects would allow it. 1709 Strype Ann. Ref. I. xlii. 468 The application of the two leading dissenters here [Sampson, Dean of Ch. Ch., and Humfrey, Pres. of Magd. Coll., who refused to wear the Vestments] to those two eminent divines of the Church of Zurick. |
b. One who dissents and separates himself
from any specified church or religious communion, especially from that which is historically the national church, or is in some way treated as such, or regarded as the orthodox body.
| 1663 Flagellum; or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 14 [Cromwell] began..at last to appear a publique Dissenter from the Discipline of the Church of England. 1673 in Essex Papers (Camden) I. 124 Complaints from some of y⊇ Scotch Nation of their persecution..upon y⊇ score of Nonconformitie, divers of those people who are dissenters from y⊇ Church having bin..excommunicated. 1688–9 Toleration Act 1 W. & M. c. 18 §13 Certain other Persons, Dissenters from the Church of England. 1793 Cutler in Life, etc. (1888) II. 277 In Massachusetts the Congregationalists were the favorites of Government, and every other denomination was considered as dissenters from them. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiv. (1858) 462 Copt and Syrian, Georgian and Armenian, have..their own claims to maintain, as dissenters, so to speak, against the great Byzantine establishment. 1868 G. Duff Pol. Surv. 54 The Persians happen to be Shiites, or dissenters—the Turks are Sunnites, or orthodox. 1882 Seeley Nat. Relig. ii. i. 124 The popular Christianity of the day..is for the artist too melancholy and sedate, for the man of science too sentimental and superficial..They become, therefore, dissenters from the existing religion. |
c. spec. One who separates himself from the communion of the Established Church of England or (in Scotland) of Scotland. In early use including Roman Catholics, but now usually restricted to those legally styled
Protestant Dissenters. (Usually with capital D.)
Occasionally distinguished from
Nonconformist, and restricted to those who not only dissent from the national church as it is actually constituted, but disagree with the principle of national or state churches.
| 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 98 To Benj{supa} Cranmer, of Hertford, bounty, in consideracion of his charge and service in prosecuting Dissenters in that county, {pstlg}100. 1683 F. Godbury Pref. to Wharton's Wks. 4 Dissenters (a Title Rebellious people pride themselves in, and love to be distinguished by). 1688 Abp. Sancroft Instructions in D'Oyly Life vii, More especially that they have a very tender Regard to our Brethren the Protestant Dissenters. 1689 Sir G. Savile Let. to Dissenter, It is not so long since as to be forgotten, that the maxim was, It is impossible for a Dissenter not to be a Rebel. 1689 Toleration Act 1 W. & M. c. 18 §11 Unlesse such person can produce two sufficient witnesses to testifie upon oath that they believe him to be a Protestant Dissenter. 1708 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. i. (1743) 148 [After Papists] The other Dissenters..may be reduced into four classes, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, (or as they call themselves), Baptists, and Quakers. 1731 Fielding Lett. Writers ii. ii, Do you take me for a Dissenter, you rascal? 1821 T. Jefferson Autobiog. Writings 1892 I. 54 Although the majority of our citizens were dissenters..a majority of the legislature were churchmen. 1826 Petersdorff Abr. Cases in Courts K.B. etc. V. 432 note, Catholic and Protestant dissenters may plead the Acts of Toleration, and of 31 Geo. 3 to almost all prosecutions under these acts. 1839 Eclectic Review 1 Jan. 4 The Protestant Dissenters of English History, in whose favour the provisions of the ‘Toleration Act’ were originally intended to operate, consist of the three denominations which have branched from the original Nonconformists; viz., the Presbyterians, the Congregationalists (or Independents), and the Baptists. 1890 Atkinson Sp. in H. Com. 22 July, I am not a Dissenter; I am a Nonconformist. |
d. fig. and
transf.| 1827 Lytton Pelham xxiii, Coxcombs and Coquettes are the dissenters of society. 1865 Grote Plato I. ii. 88 There is no established philosophical orthodoxy, but a collection of Dissenters, small sects, each with its own following. |
Hence
Diˈssenterage, condition or rank of Dissenters.
Diˈssenterish a., having somewhat of the character of a Dissenter.
Diˈssenterism, the principles and practice of Dissenters.
Diˈssenterize v. trans., to convert into a Dissenter.
| 1866 Carlyle Remin. (1881) I. 82 The then *Dissenterage is definable to moderns simply as a ‘Free Kirk, making no noise’. |
| 1841 Fraser's Mag. XXV. 729 The volume looks..so *dissenterish and drab-coloured! 1864 Mrs. Oliphant Perpetual Curate I. ii. 33 A kind of meddling, Dissenterish, missionising individual. |
| 1809 Bp. J. Jebb Let. in Life, etc. xxxv. 460 It..shews the interior of English *dissenterism, during a period of thirty very important years. 1847 W. E. Forster in Wemyss Reid Life (1888) I. 213 Men grumble at Romanism and Church of Englandism and Protestant Dissenterism. |
| 1838 Bp. S. Wilberforce in Life I. 128 Such men altogether escape us, they became wholly individualized and semi-*dissenterized. 1856 Lit. Churchman II. 94/1 A plan for the Protestantizing, and even Dissenterizing, the University. |