[a. late L. (eccl.) vindicātor, agent-n. f. vindicāre VINDICATE v. So OF. vindicateur, It. vindicatore, Pg. vindicador.] One who vindicates, in various senses of the verb.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 68. For as Romulus was the first builder and peopler of that citie, so was Camillus the vindicator and deliuerer of the same.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. § 3. A man, who in the memory of many present, had sate in that House an earnest vindicator of the Laws.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 314. Dr. Twisse, and all our modern vindicators of grace.
1693. Dryden, Disc. Satire, Ess. (ed. Ker), II. 87. A noble soul is better pleased with a zealous vindicator of Roman liberty, than with a temporising poet.
1714. Fortescue-Aland, Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., Ded. 4. Our Author was so great a Lover and Vindicator of it [the English Constitution].
1791. Gentl. Mag., Jan., 32/1. A certain vindicator of the Marbles … has taken occasion … to insult … Le Clerc.
1827. Scott, Surg. Dau., xiii. When this eager vindicator of betrayed innocence arrived in the capital of Hyder.
1849. Robertson, Serm., Ser. I. xi. (1855), 190. Job knew that God was the vindicator of wrongs.
1884. Spect., 4 Oct., 1320/2. Our author … has … entered the lists … as the vindicator of the claims of the Highland Crofters.
Hence Vindicatorship, the personality of a vindicator. rare–1.
1695. J. Sage, Fundam. Charter Presbyt., Pref. (1697), l 4, It was necessary for his Vindicatorship to justify this Separation.
