freedomite

Noun capitalized: Freedomite

Freedomite (plural Freedomites)

1. (Canada, also, attributive, historical) A member of a Christian zealot sect that split off from the Doukhobors, and which was involved in protests against certain policies of the Canadian government during the early to mid 20th century; the Doukhobors were a non-Orthodox religious group which emigrated from Russia to Canada at the end of the 19th century to escape persecution.
   • They [the Freedomites] have no deep-down objection to education, but a child who learns his lessons in English instead of Russian, and who rubs shoulders with some other race of youngsters, is liable to get some of the "Freedomite" edges rubbed smooth. The children are said to be communal, and that...1945, Louisa W[atson] Peat, “Drama of the Doukhobor”, in Canada: New World Power, New York, N.Y.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Co., →OCLC, pages 77–78
   • I think the house will find it interesting to know that 124 Freedomites served as volunteers during World War II.1962, Debates of the Senate: Official Report (Hansard) (Senate of Canada), Ottawa, Ont.: Queen’s Printer, →OCLC, page 55
2. (also, attributive) A member of the Dominica Freedom Party.
   • Although unable to make inroads into the Labor government until this election, the Freedomites stalled land reform, thwarting the socialist ideology of the party in power.1981, Caribbean Review, volume 10, Miami, Fla.: Caribbean Review, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82
   • Among the adherents of the new radicalism, the Freedom Party of 1970 was viewed as more a vehicle for criticism of the Labor regime (which the town-based Freedomites saw as an assault by the formerly powerless rural poor upon their citadel of privilege) than a catalyst for systemic change.2002, Irving W. Andre, Gabriel J. Christian, In Search of Eden: Dominica, the Travails of a Caribbean Mini-state, volume 2, Upper Marlboro, Md.: Pond Casse Press, →ISBN, page 9
3. (also, attributive, dated) One who advocates for freedom in various contexts.
   • To what terrible straits the Freedomites, men who persist in their efforts to exercise the right to pervert Homœopathy into Eclecticism, are driven, becomes apparent by this last public effort of the Editor of a Quarterly Journal (professedly a Homœopathic periodical) to make it appear that...1879 January, E[dmund] W[illiam] Berridge, “Homœopathy Vindicated: A Reply to Dr. Joseph Kidd’s ‘Laws of Therapeutics’”, in The Organon: A Quarterly Anglo-American Journal of Homœopathic Medicine and...
   • Woman must have the perfect arbitration of her own individuality. The right to vote is good so far as it goes, but it alone cannot free her if man continues his ownership and control of her person. In this opinion Irene perfectly agrees with the Social Freedomites, so called, and, with us she has...1886, Sada Bailey Fowler, “Love at Fairyland”, in Irene; or, The Road to Freedom. A Novel, Philadelphia, Pa.: H. N. Fowler & Company, […], →OCLC, page 255