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
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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 summer, 1960, Jackson came home and led a sit-in at the library, his arrest a first taste of civil disobedience.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 17, 2026
Other groups are providing nonviolent civil disobedience training, for example, which organizers describe as calling attention to the injustice of the current policy.
From Salon • Feb. 13, 2026
They knew civil disobedience must be civil, peaceful resistance peaceful.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026
They traced their philosophy to Thoreau and Gandhi, debating the great works of civil disobedience at Floyd McKissick’s office on Main Street in study and prayer sessions that often lasted all night.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
