supporter

Noun

supporter (plural supporters)

1. A person who supports, promotes, advocates or champions a cause, movement, or political party; an adherent.
   • During the latter part of the rebellion, he has pretended to be a warm supporter of the Government, and he may have been sincere; but, from what others have told me, he said to them he was not during the early part of the rebellion.1865, “Defense of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd”, in Benn Pitman, compiler, The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators David E. Herold, Mary E. Surratt, Lewis Payne, George A....
   • Linda Sanchez […] Strong supporter of intellectual property rights; consistently voted in favor of artists and songwriters on bills before the intellectual property subcommittee.2006 November 4, Susan Butler, “Voters Guide: So Many Candidates. Who's Going to Mind Your Business?”, in Billboard, volume 118, number 44, New York, N.Y.: VNU Business Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 32
2. A person who provides moral or physical support to another; an attendant participating in a ceremony or procession.
   • The Inthronization. The King ascended the Theatre, accompanied by the two Bishops his Supporters, the Great Officers of State, the Lords carrying the Swords, and the Lords who had borne Their Majesties' Regalia, and was Inthroned by the Archbishops, Bishops, and the other Peers, who then stood...1937 November 10, “Ceremonial of the Coronation of Their Majesties [King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, Westminster Abbey, London, 12 May 1937]”, in The London Gazette (Supplement), number 34453...
   • People who have not had a personal relationship with an LGBT individual are often unaware of the issues facing the community. By being an advocate and supporter of LGBT equality, you are leading by example. Odds are others will follow.2012 September, “Will People Think I'm Gay?”, in Coming out as a Straight Supporter: A Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans, [United States]: PFLAG; Human Rights Campaign, page 13
3. Someone who is a fan of a certain sports team or sportsperson.
   • More than 10,000 supporters attended the last match.
   • On February 14, Mr. S. F. Sanders observed two trainloads of football supporters from Bolton which were conveyed to Luton by Nos. 45710, Irresistible, and 45712, Victory, respectively.1953 April, “Notes and News: Locomotive Notes: London Midland Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 285
4. Something that supports another thing.
   • Combustibility, then, is not a quality of the combustible, taken by itself. It is merely a faculty which may be brought into action through the instrumentality of a corresponding faculty in some other body. It is, in the case now before us, the union of the combustible with oxygen, and which, for...1841, C[harles] W[ye] Williams, “Of Gaseous Combinations, and Particularly of the Union of Coal-gas and Atmospheric Air”, in The Combustion of Coal and the Prevention of Smoke Chemically and...
   1. Something that supports a structure such as a building or a sculpture.
      • Plane surfaces predominate in this factory. The glass and iron walls are joined cleanly at the corners without the intervention of piers[…]. [Peter] Behrens bounded the glass walls of his famous Turbine Hall right and left with monumental cyclopean walls. These have disappeared with [Walter]...1967, Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Charles Eliot Norton lectures, 1938-1939.), 5th rev. and enl. edition, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press...
      • [Joseph] Paxton had made this enormous water-plant [Victoria amazonica] to flower for the first time outside its native South American rivers at Chatsworth on 9 November 1848, and with its ‘radiating cantilevers and cross girders’ it had a similar structural principle, he told the Society of Arts...2004, J. R. Piggott, “The ‘Parent Building’: The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park and the Great Exhibition, 1851”, in Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham 1854–1936, London: Hurst &...
   2. An animal or figure that supports a shield in a coat of arms.
      • […] I am fully perſuaded that there cannot remain a doubt of the uſe of ſupporters having originated from the fancy of ſeal-engravers. Supporters were likewiſe anciently uſed by divers perſons in private life, as appears by their ſeals, who had offices of high dignity in the ſtate, and more...1780, Joseph Edmondson, [Joseph Ayloffe], “Marshalling”, in A Complete Body of Heraldry: … Glover's Ordinary of Arms, Augmented and Improved; an Alphabet of Arms, Containing upwards of Fifty Thousand...
      • The Unicorn is the well-known dexter Supporter of England. […] A pair of unicorns also support the shield of the Duke of Rutland. […] A Monster, a compound of a Lion and a Fish, or a Sea-Lion, is known in the fabulous menagerie of Heraldry. Two of these Sea-Lions are Supporters of the Viscount...1864, Charles Boutell, “Miscellaneous Charges: Part II., Animate Beings”, in Heraldry, Historical and Popular. … With Nine Hundred and Seventy-five Illustrations, 3rd rev. and enl. edition, London...
   3. A garter worn around the leg to support a sock or stocking.
      • From the radiator, where he was attaching supporters to his socks, Zooey glanced up at her.1957, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1961, ISBN 978-0-316-76954-9; LB Books edition, New York, N.Y.: LB Books, 1991, ISBN...