Syn. -- Insurrection; sedition; rebellion; mutiny. See Insurrection.
Re*volt"er (?), n. One who revolts.
Re*volt"ing, a. Causing abhorrence mixed with disgust; exciting extreme
repugnance; loathsome; as, revolting cruelty. -- Re*volt"ing*ly, adv.
Rev"o*lu*ble (?), a. [L. revolubilis that may be rolled back. See
Revolve.] Capable of revolving; rotatory; revolving. [Obs.]
Us, then, to whom the thrice three year Hath filled his revoluble
orb since our arrival here, I blame not.
Chapman.
Rev"o*lute (?), a. [L. revolutus, p. p. of revolvere. See Revolve.]
(Bot. & Zoöl.) Rolled backward or downward.
A revolute leaf is coiled downwards, with the lower surface inside the
coil. A leaf with revolute margins has the edges rolled under, as in
the Andromeda polifilia.
Rev`o*lu"tion (?), n. [F. révolution, L. revolutio. See Revolve.] 1.
The act of revolving, or turning round on an axis or a center; the
motion of a body round a fixed point or line; rotation; as, the
revolution of a wheel, of a top, of the earth on its axis, etc.
2. Return to a point before occupied, or to a point relatively the
same; a rolling back; return; as, revolution in an ellipse or spiral.
That fear Comes thundering back, with dreadful revolution, On my
defenseless head.
Milton.
3. The space measured by the regular return of a revolving body; the
period made by the regular recurrence of a measure of time, or by a
succession of similar events. "The short revolution of a day." Dryden.
4. (Astron.) The motion of any body, as a planet or satellite, in a
curved line or orbit, until it returns to the same point again, or to a
point relatively the same; -- designated as the annual, anomalistic,
nodical, sidereal, or tropical revolution, according as the point of
return or completion has a fixed relation to the year, the anomaly, the
nodes, the stars, or the tropics; as, the revolution of the earth about
the sun; the revolution of the moon about the earth.
The term is sometimes applied in astronomy to the motion of a single
body, as a planet, about its own axis, but this motion is usually
called rotation.
5. (Geom.) The motion of a point, line, or surface about a point or
line as its center or axis, in such a manner that a moving point
generates a curve, a moving line a surface (called a surface of
revolution), and a moving surface a solid (called a solid of
revolution); as, the revolution of a right-angled triangle about one of
its sides generates a cone; the revolution of a semicircle about the
diameter generates a sphere.
6. A total or radical change; as, a revolution in one's circumstances
or way of living.
The ability . . . of the great philosopher speedily produced a
complete revolution throughout the department.
Macaulay.
7. (Politics) A fundamental change in political organization, or in a
government or constitution; the overthrow or renunciation of one
government, and the substitution of another, by the governed.
The violence of revolutions is generally proportioned to the degree
of the maladministration which has produced them.
Macaulay.
When used without qualifying terms, the word is often applied
specifically, by way of eminence, to: (a) The English Revolution in
1689, when William of Orange and Mary became the reigning sovereigns,
in place of James II. (b) The American Revolution, beginning in 1775,
by which the English colonies, since known as the United States,
secured their independence. (c) The revolution in France in 1789,
commonly called the French Revolution, the subsequent revolutions in
that country being designated by their dates, as the Revolution of
1830, of 1848, etc.
Rev`o*lu"tion*a*ry (?), a. [Cf. F. révolutionnaire.] Of or pertaining
to a revolution in government; tending to, or promoting, revolution;
as, revolutionary war; revolutionary measures; revolutionary agitators.