RIOT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does riot mean? 

• RIOT (noun)
  The noun RIOT has 4 senses:

1. a public act of violence by an unruly mob

2. a state of disorder involving group violence

3. a joke that seems extremely funny

4. a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity

  Familiarity information: RIOT used as a noun is uncommon.

• RIOT (verb)
  The verb RIOT has 2 senses:

1. take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot

2. engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking

  Familiarity information: RIOT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RIOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A public act of violence by an unruly mob

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

public violence; riot

Hypernyms ("riot" is a kind of...):

force; violence (an act of aggression (as one against a person who resists))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "riot"):

race riot (a riot caused by hatred for one another of members of different races in the same community)

Derivation:

riot (take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot)

riotous (characterized by unrest or disorder or insubordination)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state of disorder involving group violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

riot; rioting

Hypernyms ("riot" is a kind of...):

disorder (a disturbance of the peace or of public order)

Derivation:

riot (take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A joke that seems extremely funny

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

belly laugh; howler; riot; scream; sidesplitter; thigh-slapper; wow

Hypernyms ("riot" is a kind of...):

gag; jape; jest; joke; laugh (a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

bacchanal; bacchanalia; debauch; debauchery; drunken revelry; orgy; riot; saturnalia

Hypernyms ("riot" is a kind of...):

revel; revelry (unrestrained merrymaking)

Derivation:

riot (engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking)

riotous (unrestrained by convention or morality)

• RIOT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they riot    ... he / she / it riots   
Past simple: rioted   
Past participle: rioted   
-ing form: rioting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging in a riot

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

Students were rioting everywhere in 1968

Hypernyms (to "riot" is one way to...):

rampage (act violently, recklessly, or destructively)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

riot (a public act of violence by an unruly mob)

riot (a state of disorder involving group violence)

rioter (troublemaker who participates in a violent disturbance of the peace; someone who rises up against the constituted authority)

rioting (a state of disorder involving group violence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

carouse; riot; roister

Context example:

They were out carousing last night

Hypernyms (to "riot" is one way to...):

jollify; make happy; make merry; make whoopie; racket; revel; wassail; whoop it up (celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

riot (a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity)

 Context examples 

My dear Eleanor, the riot is only in your own brain.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was only the moderating influence of the presence of large numbers of ladies which prevented an absolute riot.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Each sister could echo the wish; and Henry Crawford, to whom, in all the riot of his gratifications it was yet an untasted pleasure, was quite alive at the idea.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I had cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my despair.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My imagination ran riot, and still I could not sleep.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

On July 25, which was the 110th anniversary of the first plane flight across the Channel by pilot Louis Blériot, Zapata fell into the water after a low-speed collision with the resupply boat.

(French inventor Franky Zapata successfully crosses English Channel on jet-powered hoverboard, Wikinews)

Let me be prosaic so far as facts can be; it will help me to bear up, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does I am lost.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Any enjoyment that bordered on riot seemed to approach me to her and her vices, and I eschewed it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The socialist philosophy that riots half-baked in your veins has passed me by.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)