conservativeadjective
uk/kənˈsɜː.və.tɪv/us/kənˈsɝː.və.t̬ɪv/conservative adjective (AGAINST CHANGE)
C1 not usually liking or trusting change, especially sudden change:
a conservative society/outlook
Older people tend to be more conservative and a bit suspicious of anything new.
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liberal adjective
If you are conservative in your appearance, you usually do not like fashionable or modern clothes or hairstyles:
He's a very conservative dresser - he always looks like he's wearing his father's clothes!
More examples
- He has a very conservative approach to management.
- She's very conservative in her eating habits.
- When it comes to music, my tastes are quite conservative.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Custom, tradition & conformity
- apple pie
- as American as apple pie idiom 1
- backward-looking
- backwards
- be (like) sheep idiom
- blend into the scenery idiom
- cue
- folk
- folk memory
- folklore
- follow the crowd idiom
- go/swim against the tide idiom
- nonconformist
- norm
- orthodoxy
- patrimony
- reactionary
- scenery
- sheep
- zeitgeist
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conservative adjective (LOW)
A conservative guess or calculation is likely to be less than the real amount:
If I said there were three million unemployed, that would be a conservative estimate.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Cautious and vigilant
- askance
- attentive
- belt and braces idiom
- better safe than sorry idiom
- better the devil you know (than the devil you don't) idiom
- due diligence
- gingerly
- guarded
- intent
- jealous
- narrowly
- once
- once bitten, twice shy idiom
- precise
- prudent
- sedulous
- slowly
- vigilance
- vigilant
- wary
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conservatively
adverb uk/kənˈsɜː.və.tɪv.li/us/kənˈsɝː.və.t̬ɪv.li/
I dress more conservatively for the office.
The costs of cleaning up the bay are estimated, conservatively, at $1 billion.