Whiteboys

[ hwahyt-boiz, wahyt- ]

noun

, (used with a singular verb)

1. a secret agrarian peasant organization, active in Ireland during the early 1760s, whose members wore white shirts for recognition on their night raids to destroy crops, barns, and other property in redressing grievances against landlords and protesting the paying of tithes.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Whiteboys¹

white + boy + -s ³

Example Sentences

The movement was agrarian, not religious, though the Whiteboys were catholics, nor political.

From Project Gutenberg

The principal secret societies were the Oakboys and the Steelboys of the north, and the Whiteboys of the south.

From Project Gutenberg

I wish we had more of the stamp among us now—'tis little of the Whiteboys or Ribbonmen would trouble the country then.

From Project Gutenberg

Some twenty or thirty Whiteboys had gathered around the dying sergeant, watching his agonies with fiendish joy.

From Project Gutenberg

From Armagh we marched to Naas, the country to the south having become much disturbed by the Whiteboys, as they termed themselves.

From Project Gutenberg