[f. as prec. + -IST.]
1. One who conforms to any usage or practice.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 122. A Conformist to the old Superstitious Ceremonies.
1697. C. Leslie, Snake in Grass (ed. 2), 255. Thoroughly a Conformist to every the least … Custom or Fashion among the Quakers.
1754. Richardson, Grandison (1781), VI. xxix. 183. In my own dress, I am generally a conformist to the fashion.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. iii. 110. Several pliant conformists with all changes.
1834. Medwin, Angler in Wales, I. 124. He was a conformist of the Church of England, but rather lax in his devotions.
1922. The Dial, LXXII. 308. In this sense he [Henry Lee Higginson] was always a conformist, but never partisan, never rancorous.
2. One who conforms in matters religious or ecclesiastical; spec. in Eng. Hist. one who conforms to the usages of the Church of England as required by the successive Acts of Uniformity, esp. that of 1662; the negative Nonconformist is now in more common use.
Occasional conformist: one who practised ‘occasional conformity’; see CONFORMITY 3.
1634. Canne, Necess. Separ. (1849), 43. I must confess that the Conformists keep much better to their grounds than the other do.
a. 1640. J. Ball, Answ. to Can, i. (1642), 101. The Conformists (I use that Word because you are pleased so to speake).
1703. De Foe, Shortest way to Peace, Misc. 444. When I speak of the Church of England, I mean the General Body of Orthodox Conformists.
1709. Sacheverell, Serm., 5 Nov., 22. The Whiggs … are Conformists in Profession, Half-Conformists in Practice, and Non-Conformists in Judgment.
1710. Lett. to New Memb. Parl., in Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 568. Our occasional conformists, if not well looked after, will swallow up our government by this cunning hypocrisy.
1805. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., III. 286. The coronation oath binds the sovereign to be a conformist.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 60. In that year began the long struggle between two great parties of conformists … the High Church party and the Low Church party.
1880. Mrs. A. R. Ellis, Sylvestra, II. 56. The rector kept a sharp eye on occasional conformists.
3. Collector’s name for a moth (Xylina conformis).
1869. E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 427. The Conformist Moth.
4. attrib.
1641. R. Brooke, Eng. Episc., 90. The Church of England hath three maine Divisions, the Conformist, the Non-Conformist and the Separatist.
1885. Manch. Exam., 8 May, 5/3. Either in Conformist or Nonconformist pulpits.
