Whiteboys

[ hwahyt-boiz, wahyt- ]

/ ˈʰwaɪtˌbɔɪz, ˈwaɪt- /

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noun (used with a singular verb)

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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Origin of Whiteboys

white + boy + -s³

Words nearby Whiteboys

white blood cell, white blood cells, whiteboard, white book, Whiteboy, Whiteboys, white bread, white bryony, white buck, whitecap, white cedar

How to use Whiteboys in a sentence

The movement was agrarian, not religious, though the Whiteboys were catholics, nor political.
The Political History of England - Vol. X.|William Hunt
The principal secret societies were the Oakboys and the Steelboys of the north, and the Whiteboys of the south.
Is Ulster Right?|Anonymous
I wish we had more of the stamp among us now—'tis little of the Whiteboys or Ribbonmen would trouble the country then.
Bits of Blarney|R. Shelton Mackenzie
Some twenty or thirty Whiteboys had gathered around the dying sergeant, watching his agonies with fiendish joy.
Bits of Blarney|R. Shelton Mackenzie

From Armagh we marched to Naas, the country to the south having become much disturbed by the Whiteboys, as they termed themselves.
Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade|William Surtees