From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishWhigWhig /wɪɡ/ noun [countable] PPGSHa member of a British political party of the 18th and early 19th centuries which wanted to limit royal power, and later became the Liberal Party
Examples from the Corpus
Whig• Likewise, we can still find examples of Tories attacking the theory of the ancient constitution and Whigs defending it.• Both Democrats and Whigs wanted to gloss over sectional differences and cement party loyalties, not divide the country.• According to Benton, Whigs and the abolitionists who wanted Florida to remain a haven for runaways were in agreement.• In other places we find Whig crowds retaliating to a Tory initiative.• The interregnum produced by the King's removal facilitated a sudden and dramatic resurgence of the Whigs.• On the other side, the Whig defence of the executive was not totally new after 1689.• The Low Church bishops proved to be valuable Parliamentary allies to the Whigs.• The Whigs were low churchmen and Hanoverians, the Tories high churchmen and Jacobites.Origin Whig (1600-1700) Whiggamore “member of a 17th-century Scottish group opposed to the king” ((17-20 centuries)), probably from Scottish English whig “to drive” + more “horse, mare” 