illiberal

illiberal adj Illiberal, narrow-minded, narrow, intolerant, bigoted, hidebound mean so lacking in breadth of mind or experience as to be unwilling or unable to understand the point of view of others.

Illiberal implies a lack of freedom of spirit, mind, or thought that prevents one from entering into sympathy with the aims, beliefs, policies, or attitudes of others; it usually suggests an ungenerous or grudging mind

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the illiberal or fanatically intolerant spirit which war psychology always engenders— Cohen

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Narrow-minded and narrow stress an ingrained temperament that is incompatible with breadth of mind; they usually suggest an inability to see and understand others' beliefs or aims owing to such determining circumstances as birth, breeding, or environment

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the American Puritans are frequently described as narrow-minded

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there was nothing narrow or illiberal in his early training— J. R. Green

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he shows to the full their narrow-minded hatred of the preceding century— Stephen

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Intolerant may imply illiberality or narrow-mindedness or it may imply an avoidance of weak permissiveness, but it emphasizes unwillingness to tolerate ideas contrary to one's own or to those accepted either generally or in accord with some standard

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intolerant refusal to listen to an opponent . . . has no business in such a representative nineteenth-century drawing room— Shaw

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what force, what fury drove us into saying the stupid, intolerant, denunciatory things we said— L. P. Smith

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always intolerant of loose thinking and of verbosity, he compressed into the masterly introductory essays ... his entire theory— Bidwell

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Bigoted implies complete satisfaction with one's religious or social creed and unwillingness to admit truth in others; it usually suggests unreasonableness, obstinacy, and narrow-mindedness

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"The heart has its reasons which the intellect knows not of." How often have these words of Pascal been abused to justify a temper too indolent to inquire, too bigoted to doubt— Inge

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in spite of his wide outlook and interests, he could be narrow and bigoted in theoretical views and general prejudices— Malinowski

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Hidebound implies the strong restraint of custom, tradition, or habit and aversion to change. There is less suggestion in this word of antagonism to those who hold other opinions, but a strong suggestion of unwillingness to be moved

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small-town persons, hidebound in their beliefs and conventions

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a nature sometimes hidebound and selfish and narrow to the last degree— Coulton

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Antonyms: liberal

Contrasted words: progressive, advanced, radical (see LIBERAL)