covenanter
(ˈkʌvɪnəntə(r))
[f. covenant v. + -er1.]
1. gen. One who covenants or enters into a covenant with others.
| 1643 Caryl Sacr. Covt. 10 You must bid high for the honour of a Covenanter. 1656 S. Winter Serm. 40 Abraham is brought in as the first explicit Covenanter. 1675 Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 288 Faithfulness is plainly and clearly declared..betwixt covenanters. 1850 E. H. Browne Exp. 39 Art. xxvii. (1874) 615 But a covenant on God's part implies the faithfulness of the Covenanter. |
2. Sc. Hist. A subscriber or adherent of the National Covenant signed 28 Feb. 1638, or of the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. (In Scotland traditionally pronounced coveˈnanter.).
| 1638 Duke of Hamilton in H. Papers (Camden) 51 Take him to be a uoorse instrument then anie Couenanter. 1638 Chas. I in Hetherington Hist. Ch. Scot. (1842) 290 I intend not to yield to the demands of those traitors the Covenanters. a 1670 Spalding Troub. Chas. I, I. 108 This blew ribbin was worne and called ‘the Covenanter's ribbin’ by the haill souldiers of the army. 1681 in Bagford Ballads (1878) 929 Each zealous Covenanter [rime a Ranter]. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 93 The same fanatic principle..emptied its whole vial of wrath on the miserable covenanters of Scotland. 1886 Morley Mill's Autobiog. Crit. Misc. III. 66 The temperament of the Scotch Covenanter of the 17th century. |