Whiteboys

American  

[hwahyt-boiz, wahyt-] / ˈʰwaɪtˌbɔɪz, ˈwaɪt- /

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.

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Etymology

Origin of Whiteboys

white + boy + -s ³

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Whiteboys

White′boy, a member of an association of Irish peasants first formed in County Tipperary about 1761—wearing white shirts—long noted for agrarian outrages; White′boyism, the principles of the Whiteboys; White′-brass, an alloy of copper and zinc.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

The agrarian outrages, the perpetrators of which were known at first by the name of Levellers, and eventually by the appellation of Whiteboys, commenced immediately after the accession of George III.

From An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack

He was accused of encouraging the Whiteboys, because, while he denounced their crimes, he accused those who had driven them to these crimes as the real culprits.

From An Illustrated History of Ireland from AD 400 to 1800 by Mary Frances Cusack

It was I myself found him, and the troop of the Whiteboys gone, and he lying by the side of a wall as weak as if he had knocked a mountain.

From The Unicorn from the Stars and Other Plays by Lady Gregory

She could not reconcile the desire of the Whiteboys to injure M'Carthy, with the fact of his having, by his own admission, spent the night among them.

From The Tithe-Proctor The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two by William Carleton