Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To refuse allegiance to and oppose by force an established government or ruling authority.
  • intransitive verb To resist or defy an authority or a generally accepted convention.
  • intransitive verb To feel or express strong unwillingness or repugnance.
  • noun One who rebels or is in rebellion.
  • noun A Confederate soldier.
  • noun A person who resists or defies authority or convention.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make war against one's government, or against anything deemed oppressive, by arms or other means; revolt by active resistance or repulsion.
  • Resisting authority or law; rebellious.
  • Of a rebellious nature or character; characteristic of a rebel.
  • noun A person who makes war upon the government of his country from political motives; one of a body of persons organized for a change of government or of laws by force of arms, or by open defiance.
  • noun Hence One who or that which resists authority or law; one who refuses obedience to a superior, or who revolts against some controlling power or principle.
  • noun Synonyms Traitor, etc. See insurgent, n.

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

  • noun One who rebels.
  • adjective Pertaining to rebels or rebellion; acting in revolt; rebellious.
  • intransitive verb To renounce, and resist by force, the authority of the ruler or government to which one owes obedience. See rebellion.
  • intransitive verb To be disobedient to authority; to assume a hostile or insubordinate attitude; to revolt.

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

  • noun A person who resists an established authority, often violently.
  • verb intransitive To resist or become defiant toward an authority.

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

  • noun a person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority (especially in the hope of improving conditions)
  • verb break with established customs
  • noun someone who exhibits great independence in thought and action
  • noun `Johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; `greyback' derived from their grey Confederate uniforms
  • verb take part in a rebellion; renounce a former allegiance

Etymologies

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

[Middle English rebellen, from Old French rebeller, from Latin rebellāre : re-, re- + bellāre, to make war (from bellum, war). N., Middle English, rebellious, rebel, from Old French rebelle, from Latin rebellis, from rebellāre.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French rebelle, from Latin rebellis ("waging war again; insurgent"), from rebellō ("I wage war again, fight back"), from re- ("again, back") + bellō ("I wage war").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French rebeller, from Latin rebellō ("I wage war again, fight back"), from re- ("again, back") + bellō ("I wage war").

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