Definitions

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

  • noun A Neapolitan secret society organized about 1820, notorious for practicing violence and blackmail.
  • noun An unscrupulous, clandestine group.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A secret organization formed in the kingdom of Naples under the Bourbon government, first publicly known about 1820, partly political and partly of the nature of a standing vigilance committee, which exercised great power at times among the lower classes, settling disputes and acting as referee, punishing real or imaginary crimes, and exacting payment for all such services.

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

  • noun A secret organization formed at Naples, Italy, early in the 19th century, and used partly for political ends and partly for practicing extortion, violence, etc.

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

  • proper noun The secret crime organization from Naples, Italy -- equivalent to the Mafia of Sicily.

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

  • noun a secret society in Naples notorious for violence and blackmail

Etymologies

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

[Italian, perhaps from camorra, a kind of smock, said to have been worn by members of the society.]

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Examples

  • Camorra is a Spanish word in current usage, meaning a ` quarrel. '

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 1 1986

  • The Camorra is a network of clans that run protection rackets, prostitution rings and, more recently, the drug trade in Naples and the region around it.

    ITALY'S MAFIA MESS 2007

  • In the 1820s he said an angel appeared to him and later guided had to this hill, called Camorra, where he said he discovered golden tablets detailing how Christ visited an ancient civilization in the Americas.

    CNN Transcript Dec 8, 2007 2007

  • Is there a secret society of colliers, an English Camorra, which is capable of destroying both train and passengers?

    Tales of Terror and Mystery Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • Sylvia adds that Michele Zagaria is the head of one of the bloodiest clans of the Neapolitan mafia called the Camorra and they've been involved in an enormous number of illegal activity.

    News 2011

  • D'Avino, part of the Naples Mafia known as the Camorra, had been on the run for a decade and now faces 20 years in prison.

    Evening Standard - Home 2011

  • Gomorrah takes its punning title-the Neapolitan crime syndicate is called the Camorra-from Roberto Saviano's 2006 bestseller, an impressive feat of first-person journalism by a 26-year-old writer, now under police protection.

    NashvilleScene.com 2009

  • The real-life Neapolitan crime organization, known as the Camorra, is depicted here as a hovering presence above the locals, dropping down into ordinary lives only ...

    Tucson Weekly 2009

  • (ANSA) - Rome, September 26 - A Facebook group inviting young people to join the Camorra is the latest mafia fan club to pop up on the popular social networking site, web observers said Monday.

    Gates of Vienna 2009

  • The Neapolitan Mafia -- known as Camorra -- is a group of roughly 100 battling clans

    unknown title 2009

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