Reign of Terror
1
9.3
- noun
- /reɪn əv ˈtɛrər/
- NSFW
:
Reinado del Terror
- What stopped the Reign of Terror in France (and we are approaching our own reign of terror, only a more unseen, a more subtle terror)?
- Reign of Terror, Madame Guillotine
- Reign of Terror in France
- Reign of Terror that followed
Examples
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The atmosphere of paranoia and repression defined the Reign of Terror during the revolution.
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The Reign of Terror ended ten days later.
Blog text (15) -
Some even spoke of the guillotine of the Reign of Terror in Paris and gutters running with blood.
Fiction book (1990) -
Soon, the revolution resulted in the Reign of Terror against anyone in the old establishment, terror against the Christian religion, and then the empowerment of Napoleon.
Blog text (12) -
They guillotine the king and imposed a reign of terror that dealt summary justice to all suspected enemies of the Revolution.
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They guillotined the king and imposed a reign of terror that dealt summary justice to all suspected enemies of the Revolution.
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Charles Dickens wasn't advocating the Reign of Terror when he wrote "A Tale of Two Cities," but he did warn that such a thing was the inevitable outcome of the French aristocracy's treatment of the populace.
Blog text (11) -
But Antoine Lavoisier, Priestley's French counterpart in the discovery of oxygen, fared far worse by feeding the guillotine during the height of the Reign of Terror.
Academic text (1993) -
During the Reign of Terror, many people lived in fear of being accused and executed.
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The Reign of Terror was characterized by mass executions and the guillotine in France.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'reign' (a period of rule or dominance) with 'terror' (systematic use of fear), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a period characterized by terror or rule through fear. Although it is a specific historical label for the French Revolution, the basic meaning is directly compositional and cross-linguistically understandable.
Etymology
Reign of Terror comes from the French Revolution, when those in power ruled by fear and ordered many executions; the word reign means 'rule' and terror means 'great fear'. So the phrase now means a time when leaders use violence and fear to stay in control.