crusader
nounUK /kɹuːˈseɪdə/ · US /kɹuˈseɪdɚ/
Etymology From crusade + -er.
1
Historical A fighter or participant in the medieval Crusades.
- Tony's face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, while in the case of monk and crusader there must have been a sustaining purpose, and possibly a great abnegation, a leaving of lands and possessions.”1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:
- the crusaders of the Middle Ages
2
Figuratively A person engaged in a crusade.
3
Islam, Government, Lifestyle, Politics, Religion Derogatory An American, especially a soldier or leader who wages war against Islamist militants.
- 1998, Osama Bin Ladenhttps://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/980223-fatwa.htm Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.
4
Islam, Government, Lifestyle, Politics, Religion Derogatory, Slur A Westerner; a Christian, especially of European descent or a missionary.
5
Islam, Government, Lifestyle, Politics, Religion Derogatory (either attributively or in the plural) The United States and its Western allies.
- Derived terms
- caped crusader, cornstarch crusader, crusader complex, crusaderism, crusaderist, crusaderlike, crusadery