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

It would be best for us follow after the rest of the army of the Whiteboys.

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

Under the names of Rapparees, Whiteboys, Defenders, Ribbonmen, etc., the Confederation of Kilkenny was carried on through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries until the nineteenth.

From The Glories of Ireland by Lennox, P. J.

Of Michael and the Whiteboys nothing was to be seen.

From Further Experiences of an Irish R.M. by Ross, Martin

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 Carleton, William

Under an accumulation of hardships famine was periodic, and from 1760, when the first Whiteboys appeared, disorder in one degree or another was chronic.

From The Framework of Home Rule by Childers, Erskine