Intolerable Acts

Cultural

Also known as the Coercive Acts; a series of British measures passed in 1774 and designed to punish the Massachusetts colonists for the Boston Tea Party. For example, one of the laws closed the port of Boston until the colonists paid for the tea that they had destroyed. Although the acts were intended to check colonial opposition to Britain, they only inflamed it.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It took violence, punitive taxes, the Intolerable Acts and more to spur Americans to take the extraordinary step of breaking with Britain.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

Colonists had a nickname for these new laws: the Intolerable Acts.

From National Geographic • Jul. 3, 2023

Delegates likened the Intolerable Acts to “being degraded into a state of servitude” and expressed their grievances because “silence would be disloyalty.”

From National Geographic • Jul. 3, 2023

Many colonists viewed the Intolerable Acts as a turning point; they now felt they had to take action.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014

As a punishment Parliament enacted the five Intolerable Acts.

From A Brief History of the United States by McMaster, John Bach

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023