Home US English Riot Act

Definition of Riot Act in English:

Riot Act

Translate Riot Act into Spanish

proper noun

  • A law passed by the British government in 1715 and repealed in 1967, designed to prevent civil disorder. The act made it a felony for an assembly of more than twelve people to refuse to disperse after being ordered to do so and having been read a specified section of the act by lawful authority.

Pronunciation

Riot Act

/ˈrīət ˌak(t)/ /ˈraɪət ˌæk(t)/

Phrases

    read someone the Riot Act
    British

    • Give someone a strong warning that they must improve their behavior.

      ‘he read the riot act to his players after hauling them in for extra training’
      • ‘‘Michael has a reputation for reading the Riot Act to civil servants.’’
      • ‘The upshot was that the Mayor read the Riot Act and the they postponed their get-together until the following month.’
      • ‘Up came the men in yellow and orange to read the Riot Act and cast a threatening cloud.’
      • ‘It was not a matter of reading the Riot Act; it was a matter of a debriefing session which we normally do after a big fire.’
      • ‘At 1.00 a.m. the mayor read the Riot Act and by 2.00 a.m. order had been restored before troops arrived at 6.00 a.m. from Sheffield.’
      • ‘In a three-hour meeting the military ruler read the Riot Act to his civilian subordinate and let the latter pretend that he was resigning on his own.’
      • ‘Earlier in the year, he had read the Riot Act to unemployed protestors in Victory Square.’
      • ‘He was in with his boss the next morning, reading the Riot Act.’