INSURRECTION • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Insurrection

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/ˌɪnsərˈɛkʃən/ Listen

noun

Insurrection n.

A rising against civil or political authority, or the established government; open and active opposition to the execution of law in a city or state. "It is found that this city of old time hath made insurrection against kings, and that rebellion and sedition have been made therein."

A rising in mass to oppose an enemy. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Insurrection, Sedition, Revolt, Rebellion, Mutiny. Sedition is the raising of commotion in a state, as by conspiracy, without aiming at open violence against the laws. Insurrection is a rising of individuals to prevent the execution of law by force of arms. Revolt is a casting off the authority of a government, with a view to put it down by force, or to substitute one ruler for another. Rebellion is an extended insurrection and revolt. Mutiny is an insurrection on a small scale, as a mutiny of a regiment, or of a ship's crew. "I say again, In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition." "Insurrections of base people are commonly more furious in their beginnings." "He was greatly strengthened, and the enemy as much enfeebled, by daily revolts." "Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and razed By their rebellion from the books of life."

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Etymology of 'Insurrection'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Insurrection" Quotes from Famous Books

... with affectionate esteem. Sir Alexander Ball's presence was absolutely necessary to the Maltese, who, accustomed to be governed by him, became incapable of acting in concert without his immediate influence. In the outburst of popular emotion, the impulse which produces an insurrection, is for a brief while its sufficient pilot: the attraction constitutes the cohesion, and the common provocation, supplying an immediate object, not only unites, but directs the multitude. But this first impulse had passed away, and Sir Alexander Ball was the one individual who possessed ...

— Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit etc. • by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... the natives of the realm as by alien mercenaries, it might well be suspected that the King wanted his alien mercenaries for some service not honourable. If it were necessary to repel a French invasion or to put down an Irish insurrection, the Blues and the Buffs would stand by him to the death. But, if his object were to govern in defiance of the votes of his Parliament and of the cry of his people, he might well apprehend that English swords ...

— The History of England from the Accession of James II. - Volume 5 (of 5) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... happiness. And when the conscience is keen, this vigilance of the practical imagination over the speculative ceases to appear as an eventual and external check. The least suspicion of luxury, waste, impurity, or cruelty is then a signal for alarm and insurrection. That which emits this sapor hoereticus becomes so initially horrible, that naturally no beauty can ever be discovered in it; the senses and imagination are in that case inhibited by ...

— The Sense of Beauty - Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory • George Santayana

... insurrection in Jamaica—tenfold more destructive to life and property than the insurrection of Nat Turner, in Virginia, of the preceding August—startled the world; but even this is scarcely referred to in the correspondence between the two sisters. ...

— The Grimke Sisters - Sarah and Angelina Grimke: The First American Women Advocates of - Abolition and Woman's Rights • Catherine H. Birney

... all this is a little too Russian in its conception," said Ranuzi, half aloud. "I shall be surprised if the police do not interrupt this seance, which smells a little of insurrection." ...

— Frederick The Great and His Family • L. Muhlbach

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