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One who is retained or kept in service; an attendant; an adherent; a hanger-on.

An adherent of a king (as of Charles I. in England, or of the Bourbons in france); one attached to monarchical government. Where Ca'ndish fought, the Royalists prevailed. Waller.

An adherent of the Sabian religion; a worshiper of the heavenly bodies. [Written also Sabæan, and Sabean.]

An accumulation of adherent, partly fused material forming a shelf, or dome-shaped obstruction, above the tuyères in a blast furnace.

Hence, the foul remains of anything adherent. The scurf is worn away of each committed crime. Dryden.

One of a sect; a member or adherent of a special school, denomination, or religious or philosophical party; one of a party in religion which has separated itself from established church, or which holds tenets different from those of the prevailing denomination in a state.

A sectarian; a member or adherent of a sect; a follower or disciple of some particular teacher in philosophy or religion; one who separates from an established church; a dissenter. I never knew that time in England when men of truest religion were not counted sectaries. Milton.

A follower; a disciple; an adherent to a sect. [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.

A member of the family of Seljuk; an adherent of that family, or subject of its government; (pl.) the dynasty of Turkish sultans sprung from Seljuk.

An adherent, or a band or sect of adherents. "Coleridge and his sequela." G. P. Marsh.

One who serves; a servant; an attendant; one who acts under another; a follower or adherent. Your trusty and most valiant servitor. Shak.

Rigidly methodical, or adherent to rule or principle; exactly conformed to a standard; not allowing or employing unneccessary ornament, amplification, etc.; strict; -- said of style, argument, etc. "Restrained by reason and severe principles." Jer. Taylor. The Latin, a most severe and compendious language. Dryden.…

An adherent of Shamanism.

An adherent of Shintoism.

One of the followers of Simon Magus; also, an adherent of certain heretical sects in the early Christian church.

A young oyster or other bivalve mollusk, both before and after it first becomes adherent, or such young, collectively.

and zealous; loyal; hearty; steady; steadfast; as, a stanch churchman; a stanch friend or adherent. V. Knox. In politics I hear you 're stanch. Prior.

Especially, an adherent; one who sustains, advocates, and defends; as, the supporter of a party, faction, or candidate.

an adherent of George Calixtus and other Germans of the seventeenth century, who sought to unite or reconcile the Protestant sects with each other and with the Roman Catholics, and thus occasioned a long and violent controversy in the Lutheran church.

An adherent to a synod. These synodists thought fit in Latin as yet to veil their decrees from vulgar eyes. Fuller.