riot
/ˈrʌɪət
/- The other thing of course is the riots and sectarian violence.
- However, economic inequality has remained a pressing problem and has lead to riots and violent outbreaks.
- An informant told them that the riot was between the peace bureau and a group of politicians.
Synonyms
- If this all continued then Ms. Lexing had a massively large riot to handle.
- The top hat caused a riot the first time it was seen in London.
- Reportedly the film caused a riot in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1927 for its portrayal of opiate-trading, white-slaving Asians.
- His mind was a riot of different emotions as he thought, ‘sorry for… you know.’
- Chad had never been so gentle with a kiss, and yet he'd never felt such a riot of emotions at the same time.
- The thrilling power of the orchestra's huge string section was unleashed even more impressively in the second movement, a riot of non-stop energy.
- The elaboration of the arch-building tradition continued through the inter-war years and reached a climax in 1939 when a riot of extravagant designs was depicted in the local press.
- Alexander Girard splashed the gray face of postwar minimalism with a riot of color and infused modernist intellectual design with the giddy warmth of folk art.
Synonyms
- Judge Bill Gibron is an absolute laugh riot at family reunions.
- I didn't think the trailer was some sort of laugh riot, but I don't think it was unfunny either.
- He used to bounce around in that chair all over the place, he was a riot.
- Nine years later, Sophia Jex-Blake and several other women encountered more violent opposition in Edinburgh, where male students rioted to prevent women from attending clinical instruction.
- When I see that other fellow college students rioted and destroyed the coolest liquor store in town, while in a drunken mob, I wince.
- In response, they rioted for two nights.
- ‘I'll play you for it,’ Danny told him, allowing her anger and rioting emotions to get the better of her.
- He felt her nod beneath his cheek and he fought the rioting emotions inside him.
- There was a pause, while Kara struggled to deal with her rioting emotions.
Phrases
run riot
Derivatives
rioter
/ noun ...- The 26-year-old was seen on video as a front-line rioter, hurling a petrol bomb and stones.
- A 15-year-old front line rioter was locked up for a year yesterday after being filmed bombarding police with missiles.
- The average prison sentence for an adult rioter was just over four years, while juveniles were imprisoned for an average of almost 20 months.
Origin
Middle English (originally in the sense 'dissolute living'): from Old French riote 'debate', from rioter 'to quarrel', of unknown ultimate origin.
read from Old English:
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex between 871 and 899, did much to promote education in his kingdom, and the word read is first found in his writings. The word goes back to a Germanic root meaning ‘advise, guess, interpret’, and Old English riddle comes from the same root. The three Rs (early 19th century) have been ‘reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic’, regarded as the fundamentals of elementary education. The expression is said to have originated as a toast proposed by the banker and politician Sir William Curtis (1752–1829). Read my lips was most famously used by the first President Bush in 1998. In making a campaign pledge not to raise taxes, he said ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’ If you want to give someone a severe warning or reprimand, you may read the riot act to them. The Riot Act was passed by the British government in 1715 to prevent civil disorder in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion of that year. The Act made it an offence for a group of twelve or more people to refuse to disperse within an hour of being ordered to do so, after a magistrate had read a particular section of the Act to them. This created something of a problem, as reading legal language aloud is not the easiest thing to do in the middle of a genuine riot—and defendants might claim later that they had not heard the key words. The Act failed to prevent a number of major disturbances over the years, but was not repealed until 1967. Riot (Middle English) originally meant dissolute living and comes from an Old French word meaning ‘to quarrel’.