riot

Pluralriots

Formsriots, rioting, rioted

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An event in which a large group causes a serious public disturbance, often using violence or damaging property.

   A riot erupted downtown after the verdict was announced.

   Food shortages sparked riots in several cities across the region.

   Similardisturbance, uprising, rampage, disorder, unrest

   Note

   The word entered English with a different meaning: Middle English riot meant debauched living. Behind it lies Old French riote, 'debate', from rioter, 'to quarrel', possibly from Latin rugio, 'I roar'. The street-disorder meaning sharpens that quarrel into open violence. As a count noun it names a single outbreak (riots broke out). As a mass noun it names disorder of this kind in general.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To take part in a violent public disturbance; to raise an uproar or sedition.

   Prisoners rioted for two days over conditions at the facility.

   Officials feared the crowd would riot if the concert was canceled.

   Similarrampage, revolt, rebel

3. 3
   nouncolloquialuncountable

   A person, event, or performance that is wildly funny or entertaining.

   The comedian's new special is an absolute riot.

   Grandpa is a riot at family gatherings, full of outrageous stories.

   Similarscream, hoot, laugh, blast

   Oppositebore

4. 4
   nounfigurativelycountable or uncountable

   A wide and unconstrained variety of things mixed together.

   Autumn turned the hillside into a riot of orange and gold.

   Her latest novel offers a riot of voices, styles, and competing perspectives.

   Similarprofusion, explosion, medley, jumble, abundance

   Note

   Here the disorder is all abundance. The noun almost always appears as a riot of, followed by whatever crowds together, most often color. Edward Sapir, in Language (1921), stretches it to 'the riot of spoken languages', a profusion too wild to sort into a few stocks. The figure keeps its sense of unruliness: a riot of anything is lavish and jumbled, never neatly arranged.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   Wanton or unrestrained behavior or emotion, free of any check or discipline.

   Speculation ran riot through the office after the sudden resignation.

   Grief, guilt, and anger were all in riot within him that night.

   Similarturmoil, tumult, frenzy

   Oppositerestraint

   Note

   Shakespeare gives this sense a body in The Second Part of Henry the Fourth: 'his head-strong Riot hath no Curbe.' There unruly appetite becomes a horse that will not take the bit. Today the sense lives mostly in the fixed phrase run riot, used of anything that grows or spreads without check: weeds, rumors, an imagination.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To provoke into violent public disorder; to throw into a tumult.

   Agitators tried to riot the crowd into storming the courthouse.

   News of the executions rioted the whole district within hours.

   Similarincite, provoke, inflame, agitate, stir

   Oppositecalm, pacify

   Note

   The causative partner of the intransitive verb. Where a crowd riots of its own accord, here someone or something riots the crowd, which becomes the object. The quickest test is whether the verb has an object. With one, it means to throw people into tumult; without one, it means to join the disorder yourself.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To annoy someone.

   His habit of finishing other people's sentences riots me to no end.

   Try not to riot the new manager on her first day.

   Similarannoy, irritate, irk, bother, vex

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