Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or an instance of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rising up; uprising.
  • noun The act of rising against civil authority or governmental restraint; specifically, the armed resistance of a number of persons to the power of the state; incipient or limited rebellion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.
  • noun obsolete A rising in mass to oppose an enemy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An organized opposition to an authority; a mutiny; a rebellion

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun organized opposition to authority; a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control from another

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin īnsurrēctiō, īnsurrēctiōn-, from Latin īnsurrēctus, past participle of īnsurgere, to rise up; see insurgent.]

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Examples

  • On December 18, he placed under sequestration the property of a number of citizens of Moulins, "because," as he cynically observed, "_the beginning of the insurrection leaves no doubt_ as to the part they took _in the insurrection_, and in the pillaging in the department of the Allier."

    Napoleon the Little Victor Hugo 1843

  • Trials of sundry Negroes charged with an attempt to raise an insurrection, with a report of the trials of four white persons on indictments for attempting to excite the slaves to insurrection_ (Charleston, 1822); T.D. Jervey, _Robert Y. Hayne and His Times_ (New Y.rk, 1909), pp. 130-136.]

    American Negro Slavery A Survey of the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime Ulrich Bonnell Phillips 1905

  • The term insurrection cannot be properly applied to the foolish enterprises of the angel El-Mahdi in the Bohahire'h, or to the less important disturbances in the Charkyeh.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon Various

  • The term insurrection cannot be properly applied to the foolish enterprises of the angel El-Mahdi in the Bohahire'h, or to the less important disturbances in the Charkyeh.

    The Memoirs of Napoleon Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de 1836

  • The term insurrection cannot be properly applied to the foolish enterprises of the angel El-Mahdi in the Bohahire'h, or to the less important disturbances in the Charkyeh.

    Memoirs of Napoleon — Complete Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne 1801

  • The term insurrection cannot be properly applied to the foolish enterprises of the angel El-Mahdi in the Bohahire'h, or to the less important disturbances in the Charkyeh.

    Memoirs of Napoleon — Volume 03 Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne 1801

  • Syrian forces fired shots at hundreds of protesters who had gathered overnight in Homs city in defiance of warning by the authorities to halt what they called an insurrection.

    Syria: Shooting interrupts latest anti-government protest in Homs 2011

  • AMMAN Reuters - Syrian forces fired shots at hundreds of protesters who had gathered overnight in Homs city in defiance of warning by the authorities to halt what they called an insurrection, a rights campaigner said on Tuesday.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • AMMAN Reuters - Syrian forces fired shots at hundreds of protesters who had gathered overnight in Homs city in defiance of warning by the authorities to halt what they called an insurrection, a rights campaigner said on Tuesday.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

  • AMMAN Reuters - Syrian forces fired shots at hundreds of protesters who had gathered overnight in Homs city in defiance of warning by the authorities to halt what they called an insurrection, a rights campaigner said on Tuesday.

    Reuters: Top News 2011

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  • A Star Trek film was named this.

    June 12, 2012

  • Early candidate for word of the year :-/

    January 14, 2021