0 the quality of not usually liking or trusting change, especially sudden change
1 the policies and beliefs of the Conservative party (= the British political party that traditionally supports business and opposes high taxes and government involvement) :
2 a tendency to preserve traditional values and oppose change, esp. in politics
3 the fact of avoiding risks that are unnecessary:
Banks are no longer thought of as paragons of financial conservatism.
Republican candidates have tried to highlight their fiscal conservatism.
4 a principle of accounting in which assets or profits are not shown in accounts as greater than they may actually be, and financial losses are not made to seem smaller than they are:
If a situation arises in which there are two acceptable alternatives for reporting an item, conservatism directs the accountant to choose the alternative that will result in less net income.
The Liberal candidate said that Conservatism had "departed once and for all" from County Durham.
British Conservatism was reinvigorated by this echo of former military power.
There was a spectacular slide in support for Conservatism in Scotland.
Some of the advisers brought into government by Mrs Thatcher disliked the old-style Conservatism.
But all conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are.
I am not a prophet in any sense of the word, and I entertain an active and intense dislike of the foregoing mixture of optimism, fatalism, and conservatism.
