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.
(initial capital letters, italics) an essay (1848) by Thoreau.
Thoreau himself went to jail for refusing to pay a tax to support the Mexican War.
In the nineteenth century, the American author Henry David Thoreau wrote “Civil Disobedience,” an important essay justifying such action.
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.”
First recorded in 1865–70
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His attempt at civil disobedience was turned on its head when the governor invited Berry and the Kentucky Rising activists to stay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
In a landmark speech in 1949, he argued that once constitutional avenues existed, methods such as fasting and civil disobedience should give way to democratic processes, warning that otherwise they became the "grammar of anarchy".
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
But Thoreau’s show of civil disobedience has resounded down the ages, creating a political legacy claimed by liberals and conservatives, libertarians and Marxists External link.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026
That’s an example of how protesters committed to civil disobedience and police can work together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
We now had no alternative but to resort to civil disobedience, and we embarked on preparations for mass action in earnest.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
But Kasamis takes inspiration from history: He read Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” in high school.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 6, 2026
Second, at their best — in the spirit of Henry David Thoreau’s objection to slavery and the Mexican-American War in his essay “Civil Disobedience” — a protest can provide a shining moral clarity.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2025
Gradually, his company branched out into pamphlets and broadsides — reprints of Andrew Marvell’s “The Garden,” for example, and Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” — and from there into books.
From New York Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
Jones notes the titles and publication dates of both works and immediately moves ahead to analyze the two works, “Civil Disobedience” first.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
Decades later, both Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. credited Thoreau’s essay “Civil Disobedience” with helping inspire their own nonviolent activism.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
