civil disobedience
noun
: refusal to obey governmental demands or commands especially as a nonviolent and usually collective means of forcing concessions from the government
Examples of civil disobedience in a Sentence
In an act of civil disobedience, the family sent its tax money to an antiwar organization.
A student organization is encouraging civil disobedience as a way to get the university to change its policies.
Recent Examples on the Web
Archon Fung, a professor of political science at Harvard, told Fortune there are important parallels between the protests, especially in terms of how university administrations respond to acts of civil disobedience.
—
Sunny Nagpaul, Fortune, 11 May 2024
These encampments can be seen as part of a longstanding American tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience.
—TIME, 10 May 2024
Students who engage in civil disobedience do so with the expectation of some reprisal.
—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 8 May 2024
In the 1960s, college students led sit-ins guided by the pillars of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action to protest segregation.
—Kiara Alfonseca, ABC News, 6 May 2024
In a show of civil disobedience, unveiled women have frequently appeared in public since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
—Parisa Hafezi, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Apr. 2024
Within areas under the regime’s control, more than 100,000 civil servants refuse to turn up for work as part of a long-running civil disobedience campaign.
—Hannah Beech, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
The movement is considered the first mass act of civil disobedience on a U.S. campus in the ’60s as students demanded the school lift a ban on on-campus political activity and secure their right to free speech and academic freedom.
—NBC News, 23 Apr. 2024
Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and other musicians performed as the crowd openly smoked weed in an act of civil disobedience to protest Sinclair's imprisonment.
—Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press, 7 Apr. 2024
Sunny Nagpaul, Fortune, 11 May 2024
These encampments can be seen as part of a longstanding American tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience.
—TIME, 10 May 2024
Students who engage in civil disobedience do so with the expectation of some reprisal.
—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 8 May 2024
In the 1960s, college students led sit-ins guided by the pillars of civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action to protest segregation.
—Kiara Alfonseca, ABC News, 6 May 2024
In a show of civil disobedience, unveiled women have frequently appeared in public since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
—Parisa Hafezi, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Apr. 2024
Within areas under the regime’s control, more than 100,000 civil servants refuse to turn up for work as part of a long-running civil disobedience campaign.
—Hannah Beech, New York Times, 20 Apr. 2024
The movement is considered the first mass act of civil disobedience on a U.S. campus in the ’60s as students demanded the school lift a ban on on-campus political activity and secure their right to free speech and academic freedom.
—NBC News, 23 Apr. 2024
Lennon and Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bob Seger and other musicians performed as the crowd openly smoked weed in an act of civil disobedience to protest Sinclair's imprisonment.
—Kylie Martin, Detroit Free Press, 7 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'civil disobedience.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near civil disobedience
Cite this Entry
“Civil disobedience.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civil%20disobedience. Accessed 16 May. 2024.
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