crusader

noun

cru·​sad·​er krü-ˈsā-dər 

plural crusaders

: one who engages in a crusade: such as

a

Crusader : a person who participated in any of the military expeditions undertaken by Christian powers in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries to win the Holy Land from the Muslims

This is religion as the Crusaders knew it: a battle to the death for souls that if not saved will be forever lost.

—Benjamin R. Barber

Cleanliness improved during the Middle Ages—particularly after the Crusaders imported the Turkish bath.

—Winifred Gallagher

Then the church was looted by the Christian crusaders from the West, who converted it for fifty-seven years to the Roman Catholic ritual.

—Mario Salvadori

b

: a person who makes an impassioned and sustained effort to bring about social or political change

human rights crusaders

an anti-government crusader

Black women lawyers early on were in the forefront of the civil rights struggle. Many women attorneys were crusaders for the poor and needy …

—Rita E. Hauser

Synonyms

• fanatic
• ideologue
• idealogue
• militant
• partisan
• partizan
• red hot
• true believer
• zealot

Examples of crusader in a Sentence

a crusader for improved safety in coal mines

Recent Examples on the Web

The union hired defense attorney Clarence Darrow, the famous crusader for the downtrodden. —Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2024

Others, irate about the hypocrisy that often accompanied both the beacon and the crusader personas, will shrug and say good riddance. —Andreas Kluth, The Mercury News, 25 June 2024

The actual casualties of these censorship crusaders are Ernest Hemingway, Leo Tolstoy and Flannery O’Connor. —Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel, 14 June 2024

This vision led to an odd coupling of neoconservative crusaders on the right and liberal interventionists on the left. —Graham Allison, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1742, in the meaning defined above