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Conservative Party

Conservative Party

17 3.7
A major political party that supports private business and smaller government
  • proper noun
  • UK
translation icon : Partido Conservador
  • Doesn't this show just how out of touch the Conservative Party is on the cost of living crisis?
  • Liberal and Conservative parties

So that being the case, Rory, looking at the Conservative Party, does it actually have a future in it's current state?

Examples

  • The Canadian counterpart to the Republican Party is our Conservative Party.

    Blog text (27)
  • Although the Liberal Party fared relatively well, the Conservative Party continues to fade from the political scene at both the national and local levels.

    Academic text (2000)
  • But the problem is the Conservative party allowed this to happen.

  • And the only way is for the Conservative Party to win!

  • The Conservative Party has been in power as long as I can remember.

  • Well, actually, I'm a member of the Conservative Party.

  • I'm here to announce my decision to put my name forward as leader of the Conservative Party.

  • He's a deeply religious man and a member of the Conservative Party.

  • All patients are to have access to comprehensive care, including a GP from 8 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week, the Conservative Party has pledged ahead of next month's general election.

    Academic text (2015)
  • The Conservative Party has been in power as long as I can remember.

Surface Forms

Morphology

Conservative + party

The phrase is compositional: 'Conservative' denotes an ideological stance and 'party' denotes a political organization, so the meaning 'a political party that supports conservative policies' is directly derivable from the parts. This is a common, cross-linguistic noun + noun/adjective naming pattern (e.g., Partido Conservador, Parti conservateur), so a B1 learner who knows both words will grasp the general sense even if they do not know the specific national organization.

Etymology

Conservative Party comes from the idea that the word conservative means 'to keep or protect' and party is a political group. So the Conservative Party is a group that wants to protect traditions and private businesses and to keep government power smaller.