Adullamite

/ əˈdʌləˌmaɪt /

noun

1. a person who has withdrawn from a political group and joined with a few others to form a dissident group

Word History and Origins

Origin of Adullamite¹

C19: originally applied to members of the British House of Commons who withdrew from the Liberal party (1866); alluding to the cave of Adullam in the Bible, to which David and others fled (1 Samuel 22: 1–2)

Example Sentences

Adullamite hopped away, running toward the B titles, which flapped their pages to welcome it.

From Literature

Some three or four years ago, at the time of the celebrated Adullamite secession from the Liberal party, there was some grumbling among Radicals because it was reported that the Prince of Wales had expressed a wish to make the acquaintance of Robert Lowe, the brilliant, eccentric chief of the secession, and had had Lowe brought to him and spent a long time talking with him; and it was urged that this was done by the Prince to mark his approval of the Adullamites and his dislike of radicalism.

From Project Gutenberg

And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.

From Project Gutenberg

And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not.

From Project Gutenberg

There was the bulk of the Adullamite body, unable to place themselves in declared opposition to the liberal mass, but many of them disposed to tamper with the question, and to look kindly on the tory government as the power which would most surely keep down any enlargement of the franchise to its minimum.

From Project Gutenberg