INSURRECTION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... broke out the Earl not only fought the revolted colonists with all legitimate weapons, but tried to incite the blacks to servile insurrection, and sent agents to bring his old foes, the red men of the forest, down on his old friends, the settlers. He encouraged piratical and plundering raids, and on the other hand failed to show the courage and daring that are sometimes partial offsets to ferocity. ...

— The Winning of the West, Volume One - From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 • Theodore Roosevelt

... introducing into the carnival of his tales. But he meant us to take the smoky atmosphere seriously. Charles Dickens, who was, like all men who are really funny about funny things, horribly serious about serious things, certainly meant us to read this story in terms of his protest and his insurrection against the emptiness and arrogance of law, against the folly and the pride of judges. Everything else that there is in this story entered into it through the unconscious or accidental energy of his genius, which broke in at every gap. But it was the tragedy of Richard Carstone ...

— Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens • G. K. Chesterton

... facility of the inhabitants of manufacturing towns, members of literary and scientific institutes, habitual readers of political journals and accustomed to habits of discussion of all public questions. It generally happens however that where a mere physical impulse urges the people to insurrection, though it is often an influence of slow growth and movement, the effects are more violent and sometimes more obstinate than when they move under the blended authority of moral and physical necessity, and mix up together the rights and the wants ...

— Sybil - or the Two Nations • Benjamin Disraeli

... man what his origin is—of God; his destiny, to God again; his errand on earth, to grow toward goodness, and make the most of himself—this Christianity is rank rebellion in despotisms, and insurrection on plantations. It cannot be ...

— Conflict of Northern and Southern Theories of Man and Society - Great Speech, Delivered in New York City • Henry Ward Beecher

... great Number of disciplin'd and arm'd Militia, ready in Case of any sudden Irruption of Indians or Insurrection of Negroes, from whom they are under but small ...

— The Present State of Virginia • Hugh Jones

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