riot Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a public act of violence by an unruly mob
    public violence.
  2. noun a state of disorder involving group violence
    rioting.
  3. noun a joke that seems extremely funny
    sidesplitter; wow; howler; belly laugh; scream; thigh-slapper.
  4. noun a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
    bacchanalia; saturnalia; bacchanal; debauch; drunken revelry; debauchery; orgy.
  5. verb take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot
    • Students were rioting everywhere in 1968
  6. verb engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking
    carouse; roister.
    • They were out carousing last night

WordNet


Ri"ot noun
Etymology
OF. riote, of uncertain origin; cf. OD. revot, ravot.
Definitions
  1. Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult.
    His headstrong riot hath no curb. Shak.
  2. Excessive and exxpensive feasting; wild and loose festivity; revelry.
    Venus loveth riot and dispense. Chaucer.
    The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. Pope.
  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.
Ri"ot intransitive verb
Etymology
OF. rioter; cf. OD. ravotten.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Rioted; present participle & verbal noun Rioting
Definitions
  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.
    Now he exact of all, wastes in delight, Riots in pleasure, and neglects the law. Daniel.
    No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows. Pope.
  2. (Law) To disturb the peace; to raise an uproar or sedition. See Riot, n., 3. Johnson.
Ri"ot transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To spend or pass in riot.
    [He] had rioted his life out. Tennyson.

Webster 1913