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• yellow peril
  yellow peril

  noun

  (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.
• Yellow Peril
  Yellow Peril

  A supposed threat to the United States posed by Japan and China. The phrase arose in the late nineteenth century, at a time when Japanese and Chinese immigration to America was meeting resistance and when Japan was growing as a military power. (See internment of Japanese Americans.)

yellow peril

American  

noun

Disparaging and Offensive.

1. (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.

2. the Asian peoples regarded as presenting such a danger.

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yellow peril British  

noun

1. the power or alleged power of Asiatic peoples, esp the Chinese, to threaten or destroy the supremacy of White or Western civilization

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Yellow Peril Cultural  

1. A supposed threat to the United States posed by Japan and China. The phrase arose in the late nineteenth century, at a time when Japanese and Chinese immigration to America was meeting resistance and when Japan was growing as a military power. (See internment of Japanese Americans.)

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Sensitive Note

See yellow.

Etymology

Origin of yellow peril

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

There were plenty of other crusades�for woman suffrage, against child labor and the yellow peril, etc.

From Time Magazine Archive