English

Japanese supporters (sense 1.3) at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney

Noun

supporter ‎(plural supporters)

1. A person who gives support to someone or something.
   1. A person who supports, promotes, advocates or champions a cause or movement; an adherent.
      • 1865, Benn Pitman, compiler and arranger, “Defense of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd”, in The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators David E. Herold, Mary E. Surratt, Lewis Payne, George A. Atzerodt, Edward Spangler, Samuel A. Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O'Laughlin, Cincinnati, Oh.; New York, N.Y.: Moore, Wilstach & Baldwin, OCLC 191224256, page 189:

        During the latter part of the rebellion, he has pretended to be a warm supporter of the Government, and he may have been sincere; but, from what others have told me, he said to them he was not during the early part of the rebellion.

      • 2006 November 4, Susan Butler, “Voters Guide: So Many Candidates. Who's Going to Mind Your Business?”, in Billboard, volume 118, number 44, New York, N.Y.: VNU Business Media, ISSN 0006-2510, OCLC 863227493, page 32:

        Linda Sanchez […] Strong supporter of intellectual property rights; consistently voted in favor of artists and songwriters on bills before the intellectual property subcommittee.

   2. A person who provides moral or physical support to another; an attendant participating in a ceremony or procession.
      • 1937 November 10, “Ceremonial of the Coronation of Their Majesties [King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, Westminster Abbey, London, 12 May 1937]”, in The London Gazette (Supplement), number 34453, archived from the original on 21 October 2014, page 7031 at 7056:

        The Inthronization. The King ascended the Theatre, accompanied by the two Bishops his Supporters, the Great Officers of State, the Lords carrying the Swords, and the Lords who had borne Their Majesties' Regalia, and was Inthroned by the Archbishops, Bishops, and the other Peers, who then stood about the steps of the Throne.

      • 2012 September, “Will People Think I'm Gay?”, in Coming out as a Straight Supporter: A Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Americans, [United States]: PFLAG; Human Rights Campaign, page 13:

        People who have not had a personal relationship with an LGBT individual are often unaware of the issues facing the community. By being an advocate and supporter of LGBT equality, you are leading by example. Odds are others will follow.

   3. (sports) Someone who is a fan of a certain sports team or sportsperson.

      There were 10,000 supporters in the last match.‎

      • 2011 October 20, Michael da Silva, “Stoke 3 – 0 Macc Tel-Aviv”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 7 March 2016:

        With the Stoke supporters jeering Ziv's every subsequent touch, the pantomime atmosphere created by the home crowd reached a crescendo when Ziv was shown a straight red shortly after the break in extraordinary circumstances.

2. Something that supports another thing.
   • 1841, C[harles] W[ye] Williams, “Of Gaseous Combinations, and Particularly of the Union of Coal-gas and Atmospheric Air”, in The Combustion of Coal and the Prevention of Smoke Chemically and Practically Considered. By C. W. Williams. Part the First, 2nd edition, London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. [et al.], OCLC 494502697, page 35:

     Combustibility, then, is not a quality of the combustible, taken by itself. It is merely a faculty which may be brought into action through the instrumentality of a corresponding faculty in some other body. It is, in the case now before us, the union of the combustible with oxygen, and which, for this reason, is called the "supporter"; neither of which, however, when taken alone, can be consumed. To effect combustion, then, we must have a combustible and a supporter of combustion.

   1. Something that supports a structure such as a building or a sculpture.
      • 1967, Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition (Charles Eliot Norton lectures, 1938-1939.), 5th rev. and enl. edition, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-03047-3, page 482:

        Plane surfaces predominate in this factory. The glass and iron walls are joined cleanly at the corners without the intervention of piers […]. [Peter] Behrens bounded the glass walls of his famous Turbine Hall right and left with monumental cyclopean walls. These have disappeared with [Walter] Gropius. His walls show that they are no longer supporters of the building, but simple curtains, protection against inclement weather, as Gropius put it.

      • 2004, J. R. Piggott, “The ‘Parent Building’: The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park and the Great Exhibition, 1851”, in Palace of the People: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham 1854–1936, London: Hurst & Company, ISBN 978-1-85065-727-9, page 6:

        [Joseph] Paxton had made this enormous water-plant [Victoria amazonica] to flower for the first time outside its native South American rivers at Chatsworth on 9 November 1848, and with its ‘radiating cantilevers and cross girders’ it had a similar structural principle, he told the Society of Arts, to the ‘longitudinal and transverse girders and supporters’ of the building.

   2. (heraldry) An animal or figure that supports a shield in a coat of arms.
      • 1780, Joseph Edmondson; [Joseph Ayloffe], “Marshalling”, in A Complete Body of Heraldry: [...] Glover's Ordinary of Arms, Augmented and Improved; an Alphabet of Arms, Containing upwards of Fifty Thousand Coats, with their Crests, &c. and a Copious Glossary, Explaning All the Technical Terms Used in Heraldry. In Two Volumes. Illustrated with Copper-plates, volume I, London: Printed for the author, by T. Spilsbury, Snowhill; and sold by J[ames] Dodsley, in Pall-Mall; T[homas] Payne and Son, at the Meuse-Gate; J[ames] Robson, in Bond-Street; J[ohn] Walter, Charing-Cross; J. Ridley, in St. James's Street; and R. Faulder, in Bond-Street, OCLC 614582140, page 192:

        […] I am fully perſuaded that there cannot remain a doubt of the uſe of ſupporters having originated from the fancy of ſeal-engravers. Supporters were likewiſe anciently uſed by divers perſons in private life, as appears by their ſeals, who had offices of high dignity in the ſtate, and more eſpecially by thoſe whoſe employments had the title of Lord prefixed to the ſtile; as Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Preſident of the Council, Lord of the Marches of Wales, Lord Warden of the Stanneries, &c.

      • 1864, Charles Boutell, “Miscellaneous Charges: Part II., Animate Beings”, in Heraldry, Historical and Popular. [...] With Nine Hundred and Seventy-five Illustrations, 3rd rev. and enl. edition, London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty, OCLC 2134535, page 68:

        The Unicorn is the well-known dexter Supporter of England. […] A pair of unicorns also support the shield of the Duke of Rutland. […] A Monster, a compound of a Lion and a Fish, or a Sea-Lion, is known in the fabulous menagerie of Heraldry. Two of these Sea-Lions are Supporters of the Viscount Falmouth. So are the Pegasus […], the winged Horse of Classic antiquity, the dexter Supporter of the Baron Berwick; […]

   3. A garter worn around the leg to support a sock or stocking.
      • 1957, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, “Zooey”, in Franny and Zooey, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, published 1961, ISBN 978-0-316-76954-9; LB Books edition, New York, N.Y.: LB Books, 1991, ISBN 978-0-606-28833-0, page 117:

        From the radiator, where he was attaching supporters to his socks, Zooey glanced up at her.

   4. Short for athletic supporter.

Synonyms

• adherent
• proponent

Antonyms

• detractor
• opponent

Translations

Anagrams

• superport

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sʏˈpɔrtər/

Etymology

Borrowing from English supporter.

Noun

supporter m ‎(plural supporters, diminutive supportertje n)

1. (sports) supporter.

French

Etymology 1

From Latin supportō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.pɔʁ.te/

Verb

supporter

1. to support
2. to bear

   Je ne supporte pas le mot injustice. (François Pérusse) - I can't bear the word injustice.

Conjugation

Etymology 2

Borrowing from English supporter.

Alternative forms

• supporteur

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sy.pɔʁ.tɛʁ/

Noun

supporter m ‎(plural supporters)

1. (sports) supporter, fan

Italian

Etymology

Borrowing from English supporter.

Noun

supporter m, f ‎(invariable)

1. supporter, fan
2. support act

Latin

Verb

supporter

1. first-person singular present passive subjunctive of supportō