† 1. Taking part in a quarrel or dissension; active as a partisan.
1607. Shaks., Cor., V. ii. 30. Remember my name is Menenius; alwayes factionary on the party of your Generale.
2. Of or pertaining to a faction.
1877. Mrs. Oliphant, Makers Flor., iv. 94. The monk, indeed, was the universal negotiator and bearer of missions from one foe to another, but whenever he ascended to the higher eminences of the Church, he too became, in his turn, a factionary and political leader; and neither poetry nor philosophy defended their votaries from fierce and obstinate political passion.
B. sb. A member of a faction; a partisan.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 115. Many occasions were sought agenst Ancisus by Vascus and his factionaries.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Notes on Waterland, in Lit. Remains, IV. 245. The unmistakable passions of a factionary and a schismatic.
1854. trans. Lamartine’s Memoirs of Celebrated Characters, Cromwell, II. 201. This religious enthusiasm inspired by Cromwell in the minds of his troops, transformed a body of factionaries into an army of saints.
