civil disobedience
noun
the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy, characterized by the employment of such nonviolent techniques as boycotting, picketing, and nonpayment of taxes.
Compare noncooperation(def 2), passive resistance.
(initial capital letters, italics)
an essay (1848) by Thoreau.
Origin of civil disobedience
First recorded in 1865–70
Words nearby civil disobedience
civil court,
civil day,
civil death,
civil defence,
civil defense,
civil disobedience,
civil engineer,
civil engineering,
civil law,
civil libertarian,
civil liberties
British Dictionary definitions for civil disobedience
civil disobedience
noun
a refusal to obey laws, pay taxes, etc: a nonviolent means of protesting or of attempting to achieve political goals
Cultural definitions for civil disobedience (1 of 2)
“Civil Disobedience”
(1849) An essay by Henry David Thoreau. It contains his famous statement “That government is best which governs least,” and asserts that people's obligations to their own conscience take precedence over their obligations to their government. Thoreau also argues that if, in following their conscience, people find it necessary to break the laws of the state, they should be prepared to pay penalties, including imprisonment.
notes for “Civil Disobedience”
Thoreau himself went to jail for refusing to pay a tax to support the
Mexican War.
Cultural definitions for civil disobedience (2 of 2)
civil disobedience
The refusal to obey a law out of a belief that the law is morally wrong.
notes for civil disobedience
In the nineteenth century, the American author Henry David
Thoreau wrote
“Civil Disobedience,” an important
essay justifying such action.
notes for civil disobedience
In the twentieth century, civil disobedience was exercised by Mahatma
Gandhi in the struggle for independence in
India. Civil disobedience, sometimes called
nonviolent resistance or
passive resistance, was also practiced by some members of the
civil rights movement in the United States, notably Martin Luther
King, Jr., to challenge
segregation of public facilities; a common tactic of these civil rights supporters was the
sit-in. King defended the use of civil disobedience in his “
Letter from Birmingham Jail.”