petitioner

noun

pe·​ti·​tion·​er pə-ˈti-sh(ə-)nər 

plural petitioners

: one who makes, submits, or signs a petition

The lost children had not been found. Public prayers had been offered up for them, and many and many a private prayer that had the petitioner's whole heart in it; but still no good news came from the cave.

—Mark Twain

The high court held that when a petition charges an official with violating the law, the petitioners must at least have knowledge of facts which indicate an intent to commit an unlawful act.

—The National Law Journal

The petitioner contended that the taking of the blood sample and the admission of the test results violated his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination …

—Raymond P. Ward

… the draft of the proposed petition was read at length: and the petition said, as all petitions DO say, that the petitioners were very humble, and the petitioned very honourable, and the object very virtuous; therefore (said the petition) the bill ought to be passed into a law at once …

—Charles Dickens

Included in Wednesday's court filing was a petition signed by more than 500 area residents. The petitioners ask that Johnson "be shown mercy and not subjected to a jail term" because he has lost so much due to the conviction.

—Michael Smith

Synonyms

• pleader
• solicitor
• suitor
• suppliant
• supplicant

Examples of petitioner in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Often the petitioner is a U.S. company trying to knock out its domestic competition by blowing up its supply chains with higher costs and greater uncertainty. —Dan Ikenson, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024

The San Diego defense attorney who first represented Diaz and raised the issue at trial sat at the petitioner’s counsel table Tuesday during oral arguments. —Alex Riggins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Mar. 2024

During restraining order trials in Maryland, the respondent can accept the conditions of the petition — to stay away from people or places outlined by the petitioner — without admitting any guilt or wrongdoing. —Katie Mettler, Washington Post, 28 Feb. 2024

For example, the map drafted by the Wright petitioners (a group of mathematicians and social scientists) was designed to put the state Senate in play this fall. —Craig Gilbert, Journal Sentinel, 21 Feb. 2024

Maintaining accountability and electoral integrity On Thursday, the five-judge constitutional bench agreed with the petitioners. —TIME, 19 Feb. 2024

The petitioners disputed the notion that widespread solar adoption results in a cost shift that hurts customers without rooftop installations, noting that solar adoption reduces transmission and distribution costs to the electric grid and lowers greenhouse gas emissions. —Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Jan. 2024

More than a dozen petitioners had challenged the law, taking their case to the Supreme Court, which heard their arguments during hearings in April and May. —Rhea Mogul, CNN, 17 Oct. 2023

Oddly helping the case of both groups of petitioners is the reluctance of far-right lawmakers to say whether Johnson would be ousted from the speakership if a discharge petition were successful. —Abigail Hauslohner, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined above