tea party

noun

1. a social gathering, usually in the afternoon, at which tea and light refreshments are served.
2. (initial capital letters) a conservative political movement in the U.S. that opposes taxes and government spending: named in reference to the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

tea party

¹

noun

1. a social gathering in the afternoon at which tea is served

Tea Party

²

noun

1. NEW.FOR.DICT.COM (in the US) a political movement, associated with the right wing of the Republican Party, favouring reduction in taxation and government spending

Word History and Origins

Origin of tea party¹

First recorded in 1770–80

Word History and Origins

Origin of tea party¹

C21: after the Boston Tea Party

Example Sentences

That’s long been true of the tea party right, and I’m afraid it is where too many Democrats are now.

From Washington Post

The tea party movement that emerged over the next few years was driven by activists who sought to leverage grass-roots fury to enact conservative economic policy.

From Washington Post

Liberals, with bitter memories of the tea party movement, are already girding for this.

From Washington Post

The funding sources for the tea party movement are still around, as are some of its key organizations, but their activists have moved on.

From Washington Post

Castle lost the GOP nomination to tea party activist and blurtmeister Christine O’Donnell.

From Washington Post

A year before he had similarly arrived with news of the Boston Tea Party.

From The Daily Beast

Senseless bureaucracy is part of what spawned the Tea Party.

From The Daily Beast

Some imagine Senator Elizabeth Warren as the charismatic leader of a progressive version of the “tea party.”

From The Daily Beast

Your move, supposedly not Tea-Party-fevered Governor John Kasich.

From The Daily Beast

A year before Government Bullies, he published The Tea Party Goes to Washington.

From The Daily Beast

You think that if a man's charming, that's the end of him, and that all he's good for is to amuse a few old ladies at a tea party.

From Project Gutenberg

The parlour, having once been a ware-room, was unusually large and well adapted for a tea-party.

From Project Gutenberg

It is not over the virtues of a curate-and-tea-party novel that people are abashed into high resolutions.

From Project Gutenberg

Worby remembered hearing the old lady tell this dream at a tea-party in the house of the chapter clerk.

From Project Gutenberg

You cite the case of some who are admirable tea-party oracles, but who cannot utter half a dozen sentences in the tribune.

From Project Gutenberg