fellow traveler

noun

1. a person who supports or sympathizes with a political party, especially the Communist Party, but is not an enrolled member.
2. anyone who, although not a member, supports or sympathizes with some organization, movement, or the like.

fellow traveler

1. One who supports the aims or philosophies of a political group without joining it. A “fellow traveler” is usually one who sympathizes with communist doctrines but is not a member of the Communist party . The term was used disparagingly in the 1950s to describe people accused of being communists.

Other Words From

• fel·low-trav·el·ing [fel-oh-trav-, uh, -ling, -, trav, -ling], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of fellow traveler¹

1605–15, for literal sense

Example Sentences

This “Project 2025 for dominion theology” is against taxation, regulation and labor unions, and its theorists “were fellow travelers with states’ righters, the John Birch Society and, later, the Tea Party movement.”

From Salon

I felt like I had a strong network of fellow travelers, colleagues in the medical school, and particularly in the bioethics center, who would feel the same way about it.

From Salon

Two weeks earlier, on the far side of the country, a fellow traveler had pointed at a map and described the crumbling buildings here, in Dhahran al-Janub, arranged in a colorful open-air museum.

From New York Times

Ms. Le Pen, for her part, has distanced herself from Alternative for Germany, or AfD, a far-right party that appears to have become too extreme even for its fellow travelers.

From New York Times

Public Health – Seattle & King County announced Friday that someone recently traveled through Seattle-Tacoma International Airport while infectious with measles, possibly exposing fellow travelers.

From Seattle Times