Sicilian Vespers

American

noun

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

Sicilian Vespers British

noun

(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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Sicilian Vespers

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

The Bourbons of Sicily hated their English protectors so bitterly, that they were ready to unite with the French to get up a modern imitation of the Sicilian Vespers at their expense.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 by Various

The subject of one of his tragedies is to be the Sicilian Vespers.

From The Diary of an Ennuyée by Jameson, Mrs. (Anna)

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