a·pol·o·gist

(ə-pŏl′ə-jĭst)

A person who argues in defense or justification of something, such as a doctrine, policy, or institution.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

apologist

(əˈpɒlədʒɪst)

a person who offers a defence by argument

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•pol•o•gist

(əˈpɒl ə dʒɪst)

n.

a person who defends an idea, faith, cause, or institution.

[1630–40]

apologist

a person who defends, in speech or writing, a faith, doctrine, idea, or action.

apologist

noun defender, spokesman, champion, arguer, maintainer, supporter, advocate, pleader, vindicator, justifier the great Christian apologist Origen

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

apologeta

apologet

apologist

[əˈpɒlədʒɪst] N → apologista mf

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

apologist

[əˈpɒlədʒɪst] n → apologiste m/f
an apologist for sb → un apologiste de qn

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

apologist

n → Apologet(in) m(f)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

apologist

[əˈpɒlədʒɪst] n → apologeta m/f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It would have been a hard trial to any woman to stand by and see the office of apologist for her husband's misconduct quietly assumed by his male friend in her own house--and it was a trial to HER.

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Now Nietzsche disagreed entirely with Renan's view, that Christ was "le grand maitre en ironie"; in Aphorism 31 of "The Antichrist", he says that he (Nietzsche) always purged his picture of the Humble Nazarene of all those bitter and spiteful outbursts which, in view of the struggle the first Christians went through, may very well have been added to the original character by Apologists and Sectarians who, at that time, could ill afford to consider nice psychological points, seeing that what they needed, above all, was a wrangling and abusive deity.

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English youth have been so educated time out of mind, and we have hundreds of thousands of apologists and admirers of injustice, misery, and brutality, as perpetrated among children.

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It was obvious that all this was the work of no ordinary thief, and perhaps inevitable that the name of Raffles should have been dragged from oblivion by callous disrespecters of the departed and unreasoning apologists for the police.

View in context

The claim that Shakespeare was an apologist for the monarchy, especially the Jacobean monarchy, has been recognized as doubtful for some time; at the very least, studies such as Hamilton's will discourage interpretations of the politics of Shakespeare's plays that neglect a careful review of relevant evidence.

Shakespeare and the Politics of Protestant England

Boyle then states that the "notion that human art contradicts, obstructs, or rivals the love of God is perverse" (3); counter to such perverse constructions of Christian thought, Boyle, sounding perilously like an apologist for Christianity, informs us that the "authentic experience of God in the Judeo-Christian traditions is not the negation but the fulfillment of human nature," and that "although an antagonistic dualism between human and divine creations recurs in Christian culture, dualism has consistently been refuted, as in the ecclesiastical condemnation of the Manichaean and Albigensian heresies" (3).

Petrarch's Genius: Pentimento and Prophecy

Summary: New Delhi [India] Sept 2 (ANI): Criticising Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, over his comments on economic slowdown, JDU National Spokesperson and party General Secretary Pavan Verma said his statement appeared to be that of a party apologist and not that of a finance minister.

Pavan Verma criticises Bihar Finance Minister over his comments on economic slowdown

Lacson also clarified that he was not being an 'apologist to Duterte' but he thinks that the President may be gathering more information about the hit-and-run incident.

Lacson: Duterte values China's friendship but loves his country more

The Roman Catholic Church honors Saturday, June 1, the life and works of Saint Justin (San Justino), the first Christian apologist and a martyr of the Christian faith.

Feast of Saint Justin commemorated June 1

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski, branded a "Putin apologist", secretly met Donald Trump's ex-strategist Steve Bannon in London in November, it emerged last night.

'Putin fan' Tory met Trump's fallen aide Bannon in secret

THE MP who blasted Ken Livingstone as "a Nazi apologist" says there's no point in the Labour Party unless it rids itself of anti-Semitism.

MANN UP OVER ANTI-SEMITISM; MP's plea to Labour Party; EXCLUSIVE

Featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Muslim convert, Time magazine apologist for the Charlie Hebdo Massacre

The religion of peace ... with the Qur'an of War?