Meaning of rebel in English

rebel

noun [ C ]

/ˈreb.əl/ us

/ˈreb.əl/

a person who is opposed to the political system in their country and tries to change it using force :

The rebels took over the capital and set up a new government.

rebel troops/fighters

a person who does not like rules or authority, and shows this by behaving differently from most people in society:

He was a rebel when he was a teenager and dyed his hair pink.

More examples

The rebel troops have launched a coordinated attack on government soldiers.
A devastating attack was launched on the rebel stronghold.
The rebels are on the point of surrender.
The army recaptured the town from the rebels.
The UN forces have a numerical superiority over the rebels.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Activism & pressure groups

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Taking action against people in power

Freedom to act

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rebel

verb [ I ]

/rɪˈbel/ us

/rɪˈbel/

-ll-

to fight against the government:

The people rebelled against the harsh new government.

to refuse to obey rules or people in authority:

Jacob rebelled against his parents' plans for him and left school at the age of 16.

If you are too strict with teenagers, they often rebel.

to react against a feeling, action, plan, etc.:

My poor sick stomach rebelled at the idea of any more food.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Taking action against people in power

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Refusing & rejecting

(Definition of rebel from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

rebel | American Dictionary

rebel

noun [ C ]

/ˈreb·əl/

a person who refuses to accept the government’s power and uses force to oppose it, or a person who opposes authority and thinks or behaves differently:

The government tried to set up talks with the rebels.

Though he dressed unusually, he never meant to be a rebel.

US history

Soldiers fighting for the southern states in the American Civil War were called rebels.

rebel

verb [ I ] us

/rəˈbel/ -ll-

Children often rebel against being forced to eat certain foods.

(Definition of rebel from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of rebel

rebel

Certainly, their jailbreaks, public displays of violence, and highly vocal protests fit a familiar image of swaggering and courageous rebels.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

With rebellion came the birth of a terrible beauty and, for the rebels, a rebirth as heroes and martyrs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Taxpayers rebelled or cooperated with governments to the extent they felt some measure of membership in the community.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Prisoners, for instance, rebelled in 1997 to have their daily allowance increased.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Nevertheless, young radicals rebelled against their elders more than conservatives did.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The organic movement is thus gradually being integrated into the established agricultural systems against which it originally rebelled.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Of the remaining 112 rebels, 24 had died, 9 had been ennobled, 60 had retired, and 19 had been defeated at the polls.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The rebels enjoyed some significant early victories, but after a series of devastating defeats the movement lost its momentum.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A state of siege was decreed in the states controlled by rebels, rapidly extended to the entire country.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A depressed and estranged peasantry expressed its bitterness by swelling the ranks of the rebels.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The targeted area need not be one with diamonds, but any from which rebels can extract surplus.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Fighters, both rebels and renegade army units, fought in the context of the collapse of state services and the unwillingness of politicians to protect them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The rebels were tried and sentenced with lightning speed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the midst of the chaos the rebels seized the main command and control centre.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

While popular discontent eroded the social base of the regime and sapped the morale of its troops, it nurtured the rebels.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of rebel

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with rebel

rebel

These are words often used in combination with rebel.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

armed rebel

The fact that both the armed government troops and armed rebel movements repeatedly take revenge upon the civilian population is a scandal which has lasted for too long.

From Europarl Parallel Corpus - English

rebel army

The rebel army was on the point of defeat only a few months ago and was almost wiped out.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

rebel commander

He described the rebel commander as a very bad subject, and wrote that he and other prisoners were treated poorly in the camp.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all collocations with rebel

Translations of rebel

in Chinese (Traditional)

（試圖武裝推翻國家政治制度的）反抗者，造反者, （對抗權威或社會的）叛逆者, 武力反抗…

Meaning of rebel in English

rebel | American Dictionary

rebel

Examples of rebel

Collocations with rebel

rebel

Translations of rebel

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