neutralistn.adj.

1623 T. Scott High-waies of God 58 The prophane Naturalist and Neuteralist, who is of all religions, or no religion.

a1665 J. Goodwin Πλήρωμα τὸ Πνευματικόv (1670) xiv. 400 Absolute Neutralists in all manner of Tenents and Opinions in matters of Religion.

1713 Humble Pleadings for Good Old-way App. 9 Malignants, Episcopalians, Neutralists, with many professed (tho' unsound) Presbyterians.

1800 Ann. Reg. 1797 (Otridge ed.) Hist. Europe 166/1 The neutralists were at pains to explain..their principles.

1833 E. Bulwer-Lytton Godolphin III. xiii. 129 The silent neutralist soon became regarded..as the secret foe.

1915 Morning Post 1 Feb. 8/6 A meeting of neutralists, held here to-day, was broken up by Republicans, who shouted ‘Long live the war!’

1957 Economist 28 Dec. 1114/2 They have been supported by perhaps an equal number of pacifists, near-pacifists and neutralists.

1988 R. Allison Soviet Union & Strategy of Non-alignment (BNC) Soviet spokesmen naturally used various arguments to encourage the neutralists to work for the dissolution of CENTO and SEATO.

1971 Science 14 May 674/1 Not all the arguments advanced by the neutralists have been sufficiently countered by those who would attribute most or all protein polymorphism and evolution to selection.

1979 Sci. Amer. Nov. 96/3 Neutralists..contend that some mutants can spread through a population on their own without having any selective advantage.

1997 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 94 7784/1 With few exceptions..even those researchers who tended towards the selectionist view of molecular evolution were willing to concede synonymous substitutions to the neutralists.

1648 R. Robins Whip for Marshalls Court sig. C4 Be no longer dumb, but endeavour the cure of this Malady or I wil call you by good statute law provided for Newtralist-resiants, and Officers.

1810 C. Thirlwall Lett. (1881) I. 7 I am at present, therefore, neutralist.

1920 Glasgow Herald 26 May 9/2 The Neutralist elements..hate the very idea of celebrating Italy's entrance into the war.

1963 Ann. Reg. 1962 351 The congress called for the withdrawal of American influence from South Vietnam and the formation of a neutralist Government there.

1992 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Apr. 55/1 The unified Buddhist church..was a major representative of a neutralist, ‘third force’ approach to ending the conflict.

1972 Amer. Naturalist 106 54 We suppose that neither a strict ‘selectionist’ nor a ‘neutralist’ interpretation will provide a realistic general explanation for observed magnitudes of genic heterozygosity.

1985 Ann. Rev. Genetics 19 82 One, the neutralist school, claimed that observed variation is essentially unselected mutations whose frequencies in natural populations are a consequence of random genetic drift and migration.

2000 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 97 6579/1 A ‘neutralist’ position on molecular evolution holds that such clock-like substitution rates are the prevalent mode of molecular evolution.