[syn: carouse, roister, riot]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Riot \Ri"ot\, v. t.
To spend or pass in riot.
[1913 Webster]
[He] had rioted his life out. --Tennyson.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Riot \Ri"ot\, n. [OF. riote, of uncertain origin; cf. OD. revot,
ravot.]
1. Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult.
[1913 Webster]
His headstrong riot hath no curb. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Excessive and exxpensive feasting; wild and loose
festivity; revelry.
[1913 Webster]
Venus loveth riot and dispense. --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. --Pope.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Law) The tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by an
unlawful assembly of three or more persons in the
execution of some private object.
[1913 Webster]
To run riot, to act wantonly or without restraint.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Riot \Ri"ot\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rioted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Rioting.] [OF. rioter; cf. OD. ravotten.]
1. To engage in riot; to act in an unrestrained or wanton
manner; to indulge in excess of luxury, feasting, or the
like; to revel; to run riot; to go to excess.
[1913 Webster]
Now he exact of all, wastes in delight,
Riots in pleasure, and neglects the law. --Daniel.
[1913 Webster]
No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Law) To disturb the peace; to raise an uproar or
sedition. See Riot, n., 3. --Johnson.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
riot
n 1: a public act of violence by an unruly mob [syn: riot,
public violence]
2: a state of disorder involving group violence [syn: rioting,
riot]
3: a joke that seems extremely funny [syn: belly laugh,
sidesplitter, howler, thigh-slapper, scream, wow,
riot]
4: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
[syn: orgy, debauch, debauchery, saturnalia, riot,
bacchanal, bacchanalia, drunken revelry]
v 1: take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging
in a riot; "Students were rioting everywhere in 1968"
2: engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking; "They were out
carousing last night" [syn: carouse, roister, riot]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
338 Moby Thesaurus words for "riot":
abundance, ado, affluence, affray, ample sufficiency, ampleness,
amplitude, anarchism, anarchy, arise, assault, attack, avalanche,
barbarize, batter, battering, battle, belly laugh, best seller,
big hit, blue story, bonanza, bother, bountifulness, bountiousness,
box, brawl, brilliant success, broil, brouhaha, brutalize, bud,
bumper crop, burgeon, burn, burst forth, butcher, butchery,
carouse, carry on, civil disorder, clash, close, collide, combat,
come to blows, comedian, comedienne, commotion, contend, contest,
copiousness, create a disturbance, create a riot, cut and thrust,
cut loose, destroy, dirty joke, dirty story, disorderliness,
disruption, distemper, disturbance, do, donnybrook,
donnybrook fair, double entendre, duel, dustup, embroilment,
emeute, ethnic joke, exchange blows, extravagance, exuberance, fad,
fence, fertility, feud, fight, fight a duel, flood, flourish, flow,
foison, foofaraw, forcible seizure, fracas, fray, free-for-all,
frolic, full measure, fullness, fun, funny story, fuss, gag, gas,
gasser, gemmate, general uprising, generosity, generousness,
germinate, give and take, give satisfaction, go berserk, go on,
good one, good story, grapple, grapple with, great abundance,
great plenty, great success, grow, grow rank, gush, hammer, hassle,
hell, helter-skelter, hit, howl, howler, hubbub, imbroglio,
insurge, insurgence, insurgency, insurrect, insurrection,
jacquerie, jape, jest, jestbook, joke, jostle, joust, killing,
knock-down-and-drag-out, landslide, laugh, lavishness, lawlessness,
lay waste, laying waste, leaf, leaf out, leave, levee en masse,
liberality, liberalness, loot, looting, lots, luxuriance,
luxuriate, make a commotion, make an ado, make trouble, massacre,
maul, maximum, melee, meteoric success, misrule, mix it up,
momentary success, more than enough, mount the barricades, much,
mug, mutineer, mutiny, myriad, myriads, numerousness,
obstreperousness, onslaught, opulence, opulency, outbreak,
outburst, outpouring, overflow, overgrow, overrun, overthrow,
pandemonium, panic, peasant revolt, pell-mell, pillage, pillaging,
play, plenitude, plenteousness, plentifulness, plenty, point,
pother, prevalence, prodigality, productiveness, profuseness,
profusion, pullulate, put forth, put forth leaves, put out buds,
putsch, quantities, quarrel, racket, rage, raise a ruckus,
raise a rumpus, raise a storm, ramp, rampage, rant, rape, rassle,
rave, rebel, rebellion, reluct, reluctate, repleteness, repletion,
resounding triumph, revolt, revolute, revolution, revolutionize,
rib tickler, rich harvest, rich vein, richness, rioting,
riotousness, rise, rise up, rising, roar, roaring success, roil,
roister, root, rough-and-tumble, roughhouse, row, ruckus, ruction,
ruin, rumpus, run a tilt, run amok, run riot, run wild, sack,
sacking, savage, scads, scramble, scream, scrimmage, scuffle,
sensation, shindy, shoot, shoot up, shower, sick joke,
sidesplitter, sight gag, skirmish, slaughter, smash, smash hit,
sow chaos, sowing with salt, spar, spate, sport, spree, sprout,
sprout up, stir, storm, story, stream, strife, strike, strike root,
strive, struggle, substantiality, substantialness, subvert,
superabundance, take root, tear, tear around, teemingness,
terrorize, thrust and parry, tilt, to-do, tourney, triumph,
trouble, tumult, turbulence, turmoil, tussle, unrest, unruliness,
uprising, uproar, upspear, upsprout, vandalize, vegetate, violate,
violation, violence, visual joke, wage war, war, wassail, wealth,
wheeze, wow, wreck, wrestle, yarn
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
RIOT, crim. law. At common law a riot is a tumultuous disturbance of the
peace, by three persons or more assembling together of their own authority,
with an intent, mutually to assist each other against any who shall oppose
them, in the execution of some enterprise of a private nature, and
afterwards actually executing the same in a violent and turbulent manner, to
the terror of the people, whether the act intended were of itself lawful or
unlawful.
2. In this case there must be proved, first, an unlawful assembling;
for if a number of persons lawfully met together; as, for example, at a
fire, in a theatre or a church, should suddenly quarrel and fight, the
offence is an affray and not a riot, because there was no unlawful
assembling; but if three or more being so assembled, on a dispute occurring,
they form into parties with promises of mutual assistance, which promises
may be express, or implied from the circumstances, then the offence will no
longer be an affray, but a riot; the unlawful combination will amount to an
assembling within the meaning of the law. In this manner any lawful assembly
may be converted into a riot. Any one who joins the rioters after they have
actually commenced, is equally guilty as if he had joined them while
assembling.
3. Secondly, proof must be made of actual violence and force on the
part of the rioters, or of such circumstances as have an apparent tendency
to force and violence, and calculated to strike terror into the public mind.
The definition requires that the offenders should assemble of their own
authority, in order to create a riot; if, therefore, the parties act under
the authority of the law, they may use any necessary force to enforce their
mandate, without committing this offence.
4. Thirdly, evidence must be given that the defendants acted in the
riot, and were participants in the disturbance. Vide 1 Russ. on Cr. 247 Vin.
Ab. h.t.; Hawk. c. 65, s. 1, 8, 9; 3 Inst. 176; 4 Bl. Com. 146 Com. Dig.
h.t.; Chit. Cr. Law, Index, h.t. Roscoe, Cr. Ev. h.t.
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906):
RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent
bystanders.