Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TO'RY, n. [said to be an Irish word, denoting a robber; perhaps from tor, a bush, as the Irish banditti lived in the mountains or among trees.]

The name given to an adherent to the ancient constitution of England and to the apostolical hierarchy. The tories form a party which are charged with supporting more arbitrary principles in government than the whigs, their opponents. In America, during the revolution, those who opposed the war and favored the claims of Great Britain, were called tories.