Sedition

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Sedition \Se*di"tion\, n. [OE. sedicioun, OF. sedition, F.
     s['e]dition, fr. L. seditio, originally, a going aside;
     hence, an insurrectionary separation; pref. se-, sed-, aside
     + itio a going, fr. ire, itum, to go. Cf. {Issue}.]
     1. The raising of commotion in a state, not amounting to
        insurrection; conduct tending to treason, but without an


        overt act; excitement of discontent against the
        government, or of resistance to lawful authority.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In soothing them, we nourish 'gainst our senate
              The cockle of rebellion, insolence, sedition.
                                                    --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Noisy demagogues who had been accused of sedition.
                                                    --Macaulay.
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     2. Dissension; division; schism. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Now the works of the flesh are manifest, . . .
              emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies.
                                                    --Gal. v. 19,
                                                    20.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Syn: Insurrection; tumult; uproar; riot; rebellion; revolt.
          See {Insurrection}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  sedition
       n : an illegal action inciting resistance to lawful authority
           and tending to cause the disruption or overthrow of the
           government

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  43 Moby Thesaurus words for "sedition":
     action, agitation, alienation, collaboration, coup, disaffection,
     estrangement, extremism, factiousness, fifth-column activity,
     fomentation, fraternization, high treason, instigation, insurgence,
     insurgency, insurgentism, insurrection, insurrectionism,
     lese majesty, misprision of treason, mutinousness, mutiny,
     petty treason, protest, putsch, quislingism, rabble-rousing,
     rebellion, rebelliousness, revolt, revolution, riotousness,
     seditiousness, stirring up, strike, subversiveness, traitorousness,
     treachery, treason, treasonableness, uprising, whipping up
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SEDITION, crimes. The raising commotions or disturbances in the state; it is 
  a revolt against legitimate authority, Ersk. Princ. Laws, Scotl. b. 4, t. 4, 
  s. 14; Dig. Lib. 49, t. 16, 1. 3, Sec. 19. 
       2. The distinction between sedition and treason consists in this, that 
  though its ultimate object is a violation of the public peace, or at least 
  such a course of measures as evidently engenders it, yet it does not aim at 
  direct and open violence against the laws, or the subversion of the 
  constitution. Alis. Crim. Law of Scotl. 580. 
       3. The. obnoxious and obsolete act of July 14, 1798, 1 Story's Laws U. 
  S. 543, was called the sedition law, because its professed object was to 
  prevent disturbances. 
       4. In the Scotch law, sedition is either verbal or real. Verbal is 
  inferred from the uttering of words tending to create discord between the 
  king and his people; real sedition is generally committed by convocating 
  together any considerable number of people, without lawful authority, under 
  the pretence of redressing some public grievance, to the disturbing of the 
  public peace. 1 Ersk. ut supra.