Definition of "conservative" []

• Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change. (adjective)
• Traditional or restrained in style: a conservative dark suit. (adjective)
• Moderate; cautious: a conservative estimate. (adjective)
• Of or relating to the political philosophy of conservatism. (adjective)
• Belonging to a conservative party, group, or movement. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Unfortunately, modern liberals have butchered the term conservative by teaching people that it means being backward and close-minded--and who wants to think of themselves this way?"
• "Ronald Reagan who defined the term conservative for a generation was occasionally accused of not being conservative enough and liked to joke that sometimes his right arm didn't know what his far-right arm was doing."
• "Norman Solomon: Well, what goes by the term conservative is too often a sort of a euphemism for dog eat dog, whoever comes out on top, we believe in the survival of the fittest – a sort of perversion of Darwinism taken into a social realm, where generally, the predatory nature in the animal kingdom of one category of animal inflicted on another is sort of mimicked and replicated."