Sicilian Vespers

American  

noun

1. a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.

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Sicilian Vespers British  

noun

1. (functioning as singular) a revolt in 1282 against French rule in Sicily, in which the ringing of the vesper bells on Easter Monday served as the signal to massacre and drive out the French

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Example Sentences

The online service debuted on Tuesday with Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi opera' "The Sicilian Vespers", conducted by director Fabio Lusi.

From Reuters • Feb. 17, 2023

At the age of 28, she opened the Scala season in Sicilian Vespers.

From Time Magazine Archive

On her first opening night at La Scala, last December, 30-year-old Soprano Callas made a smashing hit in Verdi's Sicilian Vespers.

From Time Magazine Archive

There, too, lay the native island of him whose daring mind conceived the fearful vengeance of the Sicilian Vespers.

From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow by Higginson, Thomas Wentworth

Giovambatista, the historian, his assertion that a plan for "Sicilian Vespers" was to have been executed at Moulins, ii.

From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Baird, Henry Martyn