night rider
1
9.9
- noun
- /naɪt ˈraɪdər/
- Offensive
:
vigilante nocturno
- A collection of typical night riders—everyone keeping to themselves.
Examples
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"Arrests of Popular Assembly leaders and night-rider harassment and intimidation of others failed to deter continuing protests and denunciations."
Academic text (2008) -
The first Klan—the Klan of Nathan Bedford Forrest and the night riders—was born in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Blog text (29) -
Most of these bastards were night-riders.
Fiction book (1996) -
So how are we Black men under Jim Crow and night riders able to love, marry, and cherish Black women?
Blog text (4) -
When the grand jury met early in 1916, the members were charged to investigate the 1915 fires and also to address widespread descriptions of Cherokee County as a lawless area where night riders committed depredations.
Academic text (2013) -
"The Atlanta Constitution reported that aged ante-bellum darkies, pickaninnies, and the hundreds of black farm hands scattered throughout Cherokee County felt at ease again Thursday when all fears of the rumored clan of night riders were dispelled."
Academic text (2013) -
After the Civil War, the night riders terrorized entire communities with their violent acts of intimidation.
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The local history book describes the actions of the night riders and their impact on the lives of the residents.
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Many families lived in fear of the night riders, who often rode through towns under the cover of darkness.
Synonyms
A person who secretly rides at night to scare or attack people
Surface Forms
Morphology
Literally, 'night' + 'rider' yields 'someone who rides at night', so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a basic, literal sense. However, the specialised historical meaning — a secret, often violent group in the post‑Civil War American South — is culture‑specific and not predictable from the constituents alone, so full comprehension requires prior exposure.
Etymology
The term night rider may come from the image of a rider on a horse who rode at night to scare or attack people. So, 'night rider' came to mean 'a member of a secret group who uses threats or violence'.