velvet revolution

British

noun

the peaceful overthrow of a government, esp a communist government, as occurred in Czechoslovakia in late 1989

"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

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.

Martirosyan said that she and many of her colleagues were in the forefront of the velvet revolution because “we believed that our rights would’ve been protected in new Armenia”.

From The Guardian • Apr. 26, 2019

The new mood is defined by the millennial generation’s role in the velvet revolution of this past spring.

From New York Times • Aug. 20, 2018

Now, 44 years on, a glorious velvet revolution is unfolding.

From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2015

With George H. W. Bush in Wenceslas Square in Prague to commemorate the first anniversary of the velvet revolution in 1990.

From Time • Oct. 23, 2013

To force out the powerholders, who uniformly despise him, Yeltsin may be thinking of something like Czechoslovakia's "velvet revolution," street demonstrations fueled by an overwhelming wave of people power.

From Time Magazine Archive

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