tankie

Meanings

1. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who supported the Soviet Union's policy of crushing revolts in Hungary in the 1950s and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by sending tanks into those countries.
2. A supporter of policies and actions by the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, or other authoritarian socialist governments.
3. A soldier from a tank regiment.
4. A tank engine.

1. Supporting the policies of the Soviet Union or other Marxist-Leninist governments.

Etymology

From tank + -ie (diminutive suffix). Sense 1 and, by extension, sense 2 were named for the tanks used by the Soviet Union against uprisings in Hungary and Czechoslovakia.