It really needs a context in order to be able to get a definition.
Like I said years ago, I would ask conservatives, what are you conserving? And liberals, what are you liberating?
The devil (as well as God) is most definitely in these details. Not even liberal used to be the odious thing it so commonly means now, in fact even an oxymoron; it used to be classical liberal, which liberated thought to consider matters of truth and beauty without conforming to the stereotypes of mere tradition.
What the words came to mean to me were these descriptions.
Conservative: To seek to Conserve the Founding Principles of the Founding FATHERS.
Liberal: To seek to pay off people with other people’s money, to garner unyielding support.
I realize these are the morphed realities, but they work for me.