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Riot act   /rˈaɪət ækt/   Listen
Riot act

noun
1.
A vigorous reprimand.
2.
A former English law requiring mobs to disperse after a magistrate reads the law to them.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Riot act" Quotes from Famous Books



... people preach," the old lady went on, "who seemed most like as if they were laying out a Chinese puzzle, and you had to look sharp to see where the pieces fitted. And some, again, preach sermons as if they were a magistrate reading the Riot Act, only they don't want the people to disperse by any ...
— Diana • Susan Warner

... training in seamanship, Shortie and his companions proceeded to make fast the recalcitrate Sally, and amidst hoots and yells calculated to sober up the most hopeless inebriate, they led her to her barn where Cicero read her the riot act as he fastened her in her stall. Meanwhile Betsy had succumbed to slumber and at Dr. Llewellyn's suggestion was left to sleep off the effects of her over- indulgence. When the boys got back from the barn poor ...
— Peggy Stewart: Navy Girl at Home • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... read a gorgeous riot act to the parks and waters of Manhatten, and they were very happy. Horace, who had no habits whatsoever—he had never had time to form any—proved the most adaptable of husbands, and as Marcia entirely lacked opinions on the subjects ...
— Flappers and Philosophers • F. Scott Fitzgerald

... Mounseer's legacy; being in a kind of doubt whether, according to the Riot Act and the Articles of War, I had a clear conscience in letting him away, I could not expect that any favour granted at his hands was likely to prosper. In fighting, it is well kent to themselves and all the world, that they have no earthly chance with us; so they are reduced to the necessity of ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir

... coming at the head of them, in official uniform, to read the Riot Act?—if there is a Riot Act in Australia. I'd like to see Luke maintaining the supremacy of the British ...
— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed

... enforced, and advised them to disperse. They refused to budge. Two pieces of artillery and a company of the 49th regiment, which had been sent for, to Montreal, now appeared at Lachine. Still the mob would not disperse. Accordingly, the Riot Act was read, and the artillery fired a ball high over the heads of the stubborn crowd, which, of course, whizzing harmlessly along, produced no effect upon the crowd, except that the eighty, who were armed with fusils and fowling pieces, somewhat ...
— The Rise of Canada, from Barbarism to Wealth and Civilisation - Volume 1 • Charles Roger



Words linked to "Riot act" :   rebuke, reprehension, reproval, criminal law, jurisprudence, reproof, reprimand, law



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