Word.ws English Dictionary

withstander

withstander noun: a person who withstands or resists; an opponent.

Noun

withstander (plural withstanders)

  1. A person who withstands or resists; an opponent.
    • The ordinary theme and argument of history is war; which may be defined the exercise of violence under sovereign command against withstanders; force, authority, and resistance, being the essential parts thereof.1650, Walter Raleigh, “A Discourse of the Original and Fundamental Cause of Natural, Customary, Arbitrary, Voluntary and Necessary War”, in The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh, Kt., volume VIII...
    • Remember what I told you, this wealthy Franklin is proud, fierce, jealous, and irritable; a withstander of the nobility, and even of his neighbours, Reginald Front-de-Bœuf and Philip Malvoisin, who are no babes to strive withall.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter II, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 38

Forms of withstander

pluralwithstanders

Origin of withstander

From Middle English withstonder, equivalent to withstand + -er.

Questions about withstander

What does withstander mean?
Withstander means a person who withstands or resists; an opponent.
What part of speech is withstander?
Withstander is a noun.
What is the plural of withstander?
The plural of withstander is withstanders.

Words near withstander in the dictionary

  1. withspoke
  2. withspoken
  3. withstand
  4. withstandable
  5. withstanded
  6. withstander
  7. withstanders
  8. withstanding
  9. withstandingness
  10. withstands
  11. withstay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: withstander (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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