[a. Fr. apologiste, f. Gr. ἀπολογία defence, after ἀνταγωνιστ-ής, σοφιστ-ής, etc.: see APOLOGY and -IST.] One who apologizes for, or defends by argument; a professed literary champion.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., I. 12. The Apologist professeth for them, that they greatly desired to conserve the government of the Bishops.
1728. Young, Love Fame, vi. (1757), 156. Thus pleads the devil’s fair apologist.
1844. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xv. (1862), 233. Mr. Hume, the staunch apologist of … all the Stuarts.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, vii. (1870), 184. Never was the heathen creed … so sublimated, as when it perished under the blows of the Christian apologists.
