riot
    n 1: a public act of violence by an unruly mob [syn: riot,
         public violence]
    2: a state of disorder involving group violence [syn: rioting,
       riot]
    3: a joke that seems extremely funny [syn: belly laugh,
       sidesplitter, howler, thigh-slapper, scream, wow,
       riot]
    4: a wild gathering involving excessive drinking and promiscuity
       [syn: orgy, debauch, debauchery, saturnalia, riot,
       bacchanal, bacchanalia, drunken revelry]
    v 1: take part in a riot; disturb the public peace by engaging
         in a riot; "Students were rioting everywhere in 1968"
    2: engage in boisterous, drunken merrymaking; "They were out
       carousing last night" [syn: carouse, roister, riot]

Riot \Ri"ot\, v. t.
   To spend or pass in riot.
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         [He] had rioted his life out.            --Tennyson.
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Riot \Ri"ot\, n. [OF. riote, of uncertain origin; cf. OD. revot,
   ravot.]
   1. Wanton or unrestrained behavior; uproar; tumult.
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            His headstrong riot hath no curb.     --Shak.
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   2. Excessive and exxpensive feasting; wild and loose
      festivity; revelry.
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            Venus loveth riot and dispense.       --Chaucer.
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            The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day. --Pope.
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   3. (Law) The tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by an
      unlawful assembly of three or more persons in the
      execution of some private object.
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   To run riot, to act wantonly or without restraint.
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Riot \Ri"ot\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rioted; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Rioting.] [OF. rioter; cf. OD. ravotten.]
   1. To engage in riot; to act in an unrestrained or wanton
      manner; to indulge in excess of luxury, feasting, or the
      like; to revel; to run riot; to go to excess.
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            Now he exact of all, wastes in delight,
            Riots in pleasure, and neglects the law. --Daniel.
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            No pulse that riots, and no blood that glows.
                                                  --Pope.
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   2. (Law) To disturb the peace; to raise an uproar or
      sedition. See Riot, n., 3. --Johnson.
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RIOT, crim. law. At common law a riot is a tumultuous disturbance of the 
peace, by three persons or more assembling together of their own authority, 
with an intent, mutually to assist each other against any who shall oppose 
them, in the execution of some enterprise of a private nature, and 
afterwards actually executing the same in a violent and turbulent manner, to 
the terror of the people, whether the act intended were of itself lawful or 
unlawful. 
     2. In this case there must be proved, first, an unlawful assembling; 
for if a number of persons lawfully met together; as, for example, at a 
fire, in a theatre or a church, should suddenly quarrel and fight, the 
offence is an affray and not a riot, because there was no unlawful 
assembling; but if three or more being so assembled, on a dispute occurring, 
they form into parties with promises of mutual assistance, which promises 
may be express, or implied from the circumstances, then the offence will no 
longer be an affray, but a riot; the unlawful combination will amount to an 
assembling within the meaning of the law. In this manner any lawful assembly 
may be converted into a riot. Any one who joins the rioters after they have 
actually commenced, is equally guilty as if he had joined them while 
assembling. 
     3. Secondly, proof must be made of actual violence and force on the 
part of the rioters, or of such circumstances as have an apparent tendency 
to force and violence, and calculated to strike terror into the public mind. 
The definition requires that the offenders should assemble of their own 
authority, in order to create a riot; if, therefore, the parties act under 
the authority of the law, they may use any necessary force to enforce their 
mandate, without committing this offence. 
     4. Thirdly, evidence must be given that the defendants acted in the 
riot, and were participants in the disturbance. Vide 1 Russ. on Cr. 247 Vin. 
Ab. h.t.; Hawk. c. 65, s. 1, 8, 9; 3 Inst. 176; 4 Bl. Com. 146 Com. Dig.
h.t.; Chit. Cr. Law, Index, h.t. Roscoe, Cr. Ev. h.t. 

RIOT, n.  A popular entertainment given to the military by innocent
bystanders.