Definition of REVOLT

Choose the Right Synonym for revolt

Noun

rebellion, revolution, uprising, revolt, insurrection, mutiny mean an outbreak against authority. rebellion implies an open formidable resistance that is often unsuccessful. open rebellion against the officers revolution applies to a successful rebellion resulting in a major change (as in government). a political revolution that toppled the monarchy uprising implies a brief, limited, and often immediately ineffective rebellion. quickly put down the uprising revolt and insurrection imply an armed uprising that quickly fails or succeeds. a revolt by the Young Turks that surprised party leaders an insurrection of oppressed laborers mutiny applies to group insubordination or insurrection especially against naval authority. a mutiny led by the ship's cook

Revolution and Revolt

Revolution and revolt have a shared origin, both ultimately going back to the Latin revolvere “to revolve, roll back.” When revolution first appeared in English in the 14th century, it referred to the movement of a celestial body in orbit; that sense was extended to “a progressive motion of a body around an axis,” “completion of a course,” and other senses suggesting regularity of motion or a predictable return to an original position. At virtually the same time, the word developed a sharply different meaning, namely, ”a sudden radical, or complete change,” apparently from the idea of reversal of direction implicit in the Latin verb. Revolt , which initially meant “to renounce allegiance,” grew from the same idea of “rolling back,” in this case from a prior bond of loyalty.

Examples of revolt in a Sentence

Verb

The group threatened to revolt. All the violence revolted me.

Noun

the revolt of the slaves The peasants' revolt was crushed by the king. The leader of the group called for revolt. Consumers are in revolt against high prices.

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb

The 9/11 Commission concluded that the hijackers downed the plane as passengers revolted, in a field in Shanksville, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) southeast of Pittsburgh. — Fox News, "Remaining wreckage of Flight 93 is buried at memorial," 10 July 2018 Even many who supported candidate Trump have been revolted by his intemperate, cruel and dangerous rhetoric, and by some of his policies. — Michael S. Roth, Washington Post, "Our graduates should answer cynicism and insults with inquiry and reflection," 29 May 2018 New York is not the only place where Asian-Americans are revolting against racial preferences as a tool to help minorities. — William Mcgurn, WSJ, "An Asian-American Awakening," 11 June 2018 Users revolted in what became known as the Great Blackout. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Book tells the inside story of how Reddit came to be the Internet’s “id”," 30 Dec. 2018 Inside, some of the more hard-line members urged a showdown over border wall funding, arguing that Trump’s core supporters would revolt otherwise. — Seung-min Kim, The Seattle Times, "Inside Trump’s defiance on the longest shutdown ever," 13 Jan. 2019 In the past, this has given some members the power to revolt and even hold parts of the site hostage. — Megan Farokhmanesh, The Verge, "Reddit employee saved Gamergate forum KotakuInAction after its creator tried to destroy it," 13 July 2018 Others might try to leverage the government’s weakness and violently revolt against it. — Alex Ward, Vox, "Everyone warns of China’s rise. But its decline could be even worse.," 12 Dec. 2018 Voters recoiled from the policy, revolted by vivid pictures of children kept in pens made of chain-link fence and audio of toddlers wailing for their parents. — Chris Brennan, Philly.com, "Lou Barletta rolls with Trump, as president shifts policy at border," 25 June 2018

Recent Examples on the Web: Noun

Every Anderson film, no matter how exotically conceived, is a love letter to his own analog childhood, and every Anderson film is also a subtle revolt against the digital age. — Christian Lorentzen, The New Republic, "The earnest, ironic stylings of Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs”," 21 Mar. 2018 Eventually, Facebook may be forced to really reckon with what’s happened — because of law enforcement actions, fines, regulation, user revolt, or something else. — Emily Stewart, Vox, "Facebook’s very bad year, explained," 21 Dec. 2018 The group, however, is feeling empowered by what its leadership regards as a victory for their ally, President Bashar Assad, who has survived a seven-year war and revolt against his rule. — Josef Federman, The Seattle Times, "Israeli operation targets Hezbollah cross-border tunnels," 3 Dec. 2018 The movement arose in November as a revolt against higher fuel taxes and morphed into a broad uprising against Mr. Macron,... — Eliora Katz, WSJ, "Macron’s Reversal of Fortune Is a Crisis of Empathy," 20 Mar. 2019 The turmoil involved a revolt by dozens of states this summer against the national leadership of the pageant headed by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. — Wayne Parry, The Seattle Times, "APNewsBreak: Miss America seeks ouster of 3 states’ leaders," 5 Dec. 2018 This year's preliminaries began amid a revolt by some state-level pageant officials, who were unhappy with how the decision to end the swimsuit competition came about. — Amy Lieu, Fox News, "Miss America swimsuit competition 'behind us,' contestants say at prelims," 6 Sep. 2018 Protests in Daraa in 2011 against the government’s mistreatment of teenage detainees ignited a national revolt against decades of authoritarian rule. — Washington Post, "Syrian government raises its flag over cradle of 2011 revolt," 12 July 2018 Gayoom finally introduced democratic reforms in 2008 after a public revolt and the burning down of police stations and government vehicles over the killing of a man in government custody. — Krishan Francis, Fox News, "Maldives prepares for polls seen as test for young democracy," 21 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'revolt.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.