country party Politics.
A political party which advocates the interests and claims of the country as a whole in opposition to the court or other particular interest, or (in later use) of country against town, the agricultural against the manufacturing interest.
| 1735–8 Bolingbroke On Parties 43 A Country Party must be authorized by the Voice of the Country. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. VIII. lxviii. (Jod.), The elections had gone mostly in favour of the country party. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 25 The language of the country party was perceptibly bolder and sharper than on the preceding day. 1888 Times 3 Jan. 9/5 The Country Party and the Town Party were battling for supremacy under the rival standards of margarine and butterine. |