1. Open, armed, and organized resistance to a constituted government.
2. An act or a show of defiance toward an authority or established convention.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rebelliō, rebelliōn-, from rebellāre, to rebel. See rebel.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.