reign of terror

Related to reign of terror: French Revolution

reign of terror

A period of oppression by a hostile ruler. Sometimes used hyperbolically. The people could only tolerate the dictator's reign of terror for so long before they started a revolution. Is mom finished with her reign of terror, or do we have to keep cleaning the house every weekend?
See also: of, reign, terror
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

a reign of terror

COMMON A reign of terror is a period during which there is a lot of violence and killing, especially by people who are in positions of power. The dictator's 17-year reign of terror had ended and the people took to the streets to celebrate their freedom. His victims during a four-month reign of terror included a schoolgirl and a student. Note: The original Reign of Terror was during the French Revolution between April 1793 and July 1794, when many thousands were put to death by the government.
See also: of, reign, terror
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • a reign of terror
  • everyone and their brother
  • get out with (one's) life
  • get out with life
  • everyone and their mother
  • scalp
  • be out for blood
  • be out for/after (one's) scalp
  • a labour of Hercules
  • as far as the eye can/could see
References in periodicals archive
Ames's father was correct in the broadest sense: The war over civil and voting rights would last another hundred years or so, and the rise of Jim Crow in the years after the battles of the 1870s was itself a reign of terror. The "Redemption" of Lemann's title is the Southern version of postwar history--the old Confederacy was "redeemed" from the Civil War by standing up for itself in the years afterward.
And though Moss had perjured herself before a committee of Congress, McCarthy's "reign of terror" did not prevent Moss from keeping her job at the Pentagon until 1958 (after McCarthy had died), despite her proven Communist Party membership.
Although the use of the term terrorism did not emerge until the late 18th century (identified with the French government's "Reign of Terror" (1)), the idea of terrorizing civilians to further a particular political, social, or religious cause has existed for centuries.
(See "France's New Reign of Terror" in the July/August 2001 issue of TIE.) Duisenberg, 66, has given no indication that he plans to resign midway through his eight-year term, which runs through 2006.
The terror group's ruling Inner Council held an emergency meeting in Belfast last week after a reign of terror which saw more than FIFTY pipe bomb attacks across Northern Ireland.
It's thought up to 2000 cops will take industrial action over plans to merge forces, sparking fears that organised thugs could create a reign of terror in their absence.
The entire second half of Scenes of Subjection describes the elaborate burdens of freedom imposed on ex-slaves, and the reign of terror that followed in the wake of slavery.
The Social Uplifters declare that tenant-protection laws have ended the reign of terror inflicted by surly and dyspeptic landlords.
Hitler rose from demolished postwar Germany, Stalin and the Bolsheviks from Czarist Russian squalor, and Napoleon from the Reign of Terror.
He was capable of passionate oratory, as exemplified in his own most famous speech, "Against Eratosthenes," denouncing one of the Thirty Tyrants for his part in the reign of terror that followed the collapse of Athens in 404.
At the same time, Les Piques, 1992-93, presents a significant reversal of this theme in its allusion not to repression but to anarchic rebellion, to the masses of sansculottes brandishing the impaled heads of aristocrats through the streets of Paris during the Reign of Terror.
As negotiations drag on between the United Nations and the military thugs who have taken over the government, ordinary Haitians endure a reign of terror. The majority of Haiti's people celebrated in the streets when Aristide was elected in December 1990.
PM further wrote, 'I want to warn the international community that the indian leadership will in all probability attempt a false flag operation to divert attention from its massive human rights violations and the unleashing of a reign of terror in IOK.
'With the conviction of Palparan, the Filipino people are further emboldened to demand an end to the reign of terror and mass murder of the fascist Duterte regime,' the CPP said in a statement.
We thank the Rangers which ended the reign of terror in Karachi and cut the criminals to their size.