Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The period (1793–1794) of the French Revolution during which the republican government was temporarily suspended, power was concentrated in the hands of a small group of revolutionaries, and thousands of suspected counterrevolutionaries were executed.
- noun A period of brutal suppression or intimidation by those in power.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any period of brutal suppression thought to resemble the Reign of Terror in France
- noun the historic period (1793-94) during the French Revolution when thousands were executed
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Reign of Terror.
Examples
-
It was called the Reign of Terror when the only thing a new government in France knew how to say was, "Off with their heads!"
-
In the span of about a year, from 1793 to 1794, thousands, including the queen, lost their heads to the guillotine in a period known as the Reign of Terror.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004
-
In the span of about a year, from 1793 to 1794, thousands, including the queen, lost their heads to the guillotine in a period known as the Reign of Terror.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004
-
In the span of about a year, from 1793 to 1794, thousands, including the queen, lost their heads to the guillotine in a period known as the Reign of Terror.
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 2004
-
Even the Reign of Terror was a much smaller thing than he makes it appear.
Collected Essays 1900
-
The massacre of Saint Bartholomew or the religious wars were no more the work of kings than the Reign of Terror was the work of Robespierre, Danton, or Saint Just.
-
We have already said that each of the prisons which had been crowded with victims by the Reign of Terror was a faithful reproduction of the aristocratic society of Paris, now decimated by death and by exile, but which was famous for its intrigues, its wit, its indiscretions, its luxury and its gallantries.
Which? or, Between Two Women Ernest Daudet 1879
-
We cannot dissociate these events, or disprove the contention that the Reign of Terror was the salvation of France.
Lectures on the French Revolution John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton 1868
-
Drudgery staggered up to its King's Palace, and in wide expanse of sallow faces, squalor and winged raggedness, presented hieroglyphically its Petition of Grievances; and for answer got hanged on a 'new gallows forty feet high,' -- confesses mournfully that there is no period to be met with, in which the general Twenty-five Millions of France suffered less than in this period which they name Reign of Terror!
The French Revolution Thomas Carlyle 1838
-
England had a kind of Reign of Terror of its own; little thought of at the time or remembered since.
Life Of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.