noun
- a supporter or adherent of a king or royal government, especially in times of rebellion or civil war.
- (initial capital letter) a Cavalier adherent of Charles I of England.
- a loyalist in the American Revolution; Tory.
- (initial capital letter) an adherent of the house of Bourbon in France.
adjective
- of or relating to royalists: royalist sympathies.
noun
- a supporter of a monarch or monarchy, esp a supporter of the Stuarts during the English Civil War
- informal an extreme reactionary or conservativean economic royalist
adjective Also: royalistic
- of, characteristic of, or relating to royalists
n.1640s, from royal + -ist. In England, a partizan of Charles I and II during the Civil War; in the U.S., an adherent of British government during the Revolution; in France, a supporter of the Bourbons.