Tea Act

American  

noun

American History.

1. an act of the British Parliament (1773) that created a monopoly unfair to American tea merchants: the chief cause of the Boston Tea Party.

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Example Sentences

Wall panels remind us of the Townshend Acts, the Tea Act and the Boston Massacre, all seminal events that led the Colonies to eventually break away from Britain.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025

Parliament made matters worse by passing the Tea Act in May 1773, which colonists complained gave the British East India Company a significant competitive edge in the tea market.

From National Geographic • Jul. 3, 2023

The Tea Act of 1773 was epic trolling.

From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2019

The British government had passed the Tea Act of 1773 to reinforce the East India Company’s monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies.

From Salon • Jan. 8, 2019

Many of us complain of the Tea Act, not only as it affects our liberties, but as it affects our purses, by draining us annually of a large sum of money.

From Tea Leaves Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction, notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party) by Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)