revanchist

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adjective

re·​vanch·​ist rə-ˈväⁿ-shist 

: of or relating to a policy designed to recover lost territory or status : of or relating to a revanche

Each of Hitler's allies had their own, partially interrelated, expansionary or revanchist motives for attacking the Soviet Union.

—Michael Burleigh

Wilson brought with him a sheaf of high principles—democracy, self-determination, world government—that bore little relevance to the tangled politics and even more tangled geography of postwar Europe. His idealism was soon drowned out by the revanchist passions of his allies.

—Kenneth Auchincloss

also : advocating or fighting for the recovery of lost territory or status

While revanchist emperors, such as Julian, were still mouthing the aristocratic ideology of imperialist aggression, more realistic rulers, like Constantius II, recognized that the future lay in accommodation with the so-called barbarians who had already infiltrated the heights of army and administration.

—C. R. Whittaker

revanchist

2 of 2

noun

rə-ˈväⁿ-shist 

plural revanchists

: one who advocates or fights for the recovery of lost territory or status : one who advocates a policy of revanche

In eastern and South-Eastern Europe today, one man's courageous defender of national self-determination is another's nostalgic revanchist.

—Tony Judt

Later in 2007, Pelosi plans to rewrite the laws on pork-barrel spending. She promises that the overall effect of her reforms will be "to break the link between lobbyists and legislation" in Washington. Who will win the coming battle between reformers and revanchists?

—Massimo Calabresi

Examples of revanchist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Whether or not that is true in any sort of lasting way is an open question, but for now, especially with the revanchist direction politics have taken, the art world might just be moving on from trying to do better. —Rachel Corbett, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2024

If the United States halts its military aid to Kyiv, the consequences will be profound, both for the war in Ukraine and for the rest of Europe’s defenses against external threats, a revanchist Russia chief among them. —Norbert Röttgen, Foreign Affairs, 22 Nov. 2024

Noun

It is invaded by a revanchist Russia, led by a former KGB colonel. —Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 28 Oct. 2024

In this view, Kim was not only custodian of the American polity but its inheritor, alongside the nation’s Asian, Latino, and black populace—what the white revanchists yearning for, say, the 80 percent white America of 1980, might refer to as a Great Replacement. —Yiyun Li, Harper's Magazine, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1948, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1926, in the meaning defined above