revolution, n.
(rɛvəˈl(j)uːʃən)
Also 4–7 reu-, and -cion, 5 -cioun(e. In senses 8–11 often with capital initial.
[a. OF. revolucion, -tion (mod.F. révolution, = Sp. revolucion, It. re-, rivoluzione), or ad. late L. revolūtiōn-em, noun of action f. revolvĕre to revolve.]
I. 1. Astr. The action or fact, on the part of celestial bodies, of moving round in an orbit or circular course; the apparent movement of the sun, stars, etc., round the earth.
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 61 Per cas the revolucion Of hevene and thi condicion Ne be noght yit of on acord. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483) v. xiii. 104 Suo thenne whan this Cercle hath made his reuolucion thenne they enforcen them to syngen and to ioyen. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 24 In whiche the other Planetes, as well as the Sonne, do finyshe their reuolution and course according to their true tyme. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 211 To marke the course of starres, and viewe the reuolutions of the heauens. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage ii. iv. (1614) 118 The whole reuolution of the Sunnes motion. 1678 Hobbes Decam. iv. 40 In what time do they make the whole Revolution through the Ecliptique of the Sky? 1715 tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 409 The Number of Revolutions of the Earth about the Sun made in the mean time. 1771 Encycl. Brit. I. 442/1 Jupiter's three nearest moons fall under his shadow, and are eclipsed in every revolution. 1812–16 Playfair Nat. Phil. (1819) II. 31 The cause of the apparent diurnal revolution of the heavens. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. xx. 337 A movement of revolution whereby it progresses through space, and is carried round the sun. |
| attrib. 1554 F. van Brunswike tr. Montalmo's Facies Cœli C iij b, Because of Venus, beying impedite in the reuolucion figure in the sixte house. |
b. The time in which a planet or other heavenly body completes a full circuit or course.
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. ii. §7 The day natural, þat is to seyn 24 houris, is the reuolucioun of the equinoxial. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. 115 To count the Year or the Revolution of the Sun in even Days. 1696 Whiston The. Earth ii. (1722) 212 The Moon accompanies our Earth, and has her Annual Revolution exactly equal to that of the Earth. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. i. (1840) 25 Who..searched into and calculated all astronomical difficulties, the motions and revolutions of heavenly bodies. 1819 J. Wilson Dict. Astrol. 351 Revolutions, the time in which a star revolves round the Sun or the Earth. |
2. a. The return or recurrence of a point or period of time; the lapse of a certain time.
† by revolution, in due course of time.
| 14.. in Tundale's Vision (1843) 85 Hit befell then by revolucyon By just a cowntyng in the kalendere. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 24 By revolucion and turnyng of the yere, A gery march his stondis doth disclose. 1494 Fabyan Chron. 4 All suche actes as by Reuoluciowne In theyr dayes fyll. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius (1570) 78 b, They vnderstanding verie well the reuolutions of the time, and theire appointed courses. 1589 Pasquil's Ret. D iij b, From the day of the date heereof, to the full terme and reuolution of seuen yeeres next ensuing. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 349 To deliuer vnto the world those medicins which are not to be but once in the reuolution of a thousand yeres. 1662 Hopkins Funeral Serm (1685) 48 The Naturalists affirm..that the revolution of a few years gradually wears away the former body. 1741 Watts Improv. Mind Pref. (1801) 4 And did not increase half so much in the revolution of a year. 1822 Shelley tr. Calderon's Mag. Prodig. ii. 186 The winged years speed o'er the intervals of their unequal revolutions. 1842 H. Rogers Introd. Burke's Wks. I. 1 They recur..at long intervals; they depend on the slow revolutions of ages. 1889 Pop. Science Monthly XXXV. 573/1 The period for the ‘revolution’ of felling is fixed at forty years. |
| transf. 1605 Camden Rem. (1637) 199 All things runne round, and as the seasons of the yeare, so mens manners have their revolutions. |
† b. A cycle, or recurrent period of time; an epoch.
Obs.| 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. lxx. §9 The day..changed in regard of a new reuolution begunne by our Sauiour Christ. 1667 Milton P.L. ii. 597 Thither..At certain revolutions all the damn'd Are brought: and feel by turns the bitter change Of fierce extreams. 1706 J. Logan in Pennsylv. Hist. Soc. Mem. X. 164, I am sick of the world unless it would mend, which I scarce expect this revolution. |
† c. The recurrence or repetition
of a day, event, occupation, etc.
Obs.| 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. 121 The Change of the Moon..hapneth again upon the same Days, for several Revolutions of the Prime or Golden Number. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. vi. Wks. 1851 III. 301 To fear from like Vices..the Revolution of like Calamities. 1713 Guardian No. 147 At every revolution of her wedding day, she makes her husband some pretty present. 1751 Earl of Orrery Remarks Swift (1752) 44 He seldom deviated many minutes, in the daily revolution of his exercises and employments. 1784 Cowper Task i. 462 It is the constant revolution..of the same repeated joys, That palls and satiates. |
† 3. a. A turn or twist; a bend or winding.
Obs.| 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. L iij, Fyrste knyt it with two reuolucions. Secondly with one, & than cut the threde fer fro the knot. 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 19 Vaynes infynytely intricate and writhid with a thousand reuolutions or tur[n]agayns. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 454 The braine..is foulded vp in so many convolutions and revolutions. 1648 Wilkins Math. Magic i. ix. 57 Continued by a helicall revolution about a Cylinder. 1729 G. Shelvocke Artillery iv. 361 The other [end]..is coiled around it, so as to have its Revolutions at a convenient Distance from each other. 1737 Whiston Josephus, Antiq. xv. x. §1 For these roads are not strait, but have several revolutions. |
† b. The action of turning something.
Obs.—1| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 15 b/1 When as in manner of revolutione we turne the needle, as the furriers doe. |
4. a. The action, on the part of a thing or person, of turning or whirling round, or of moving round some point.
| 1664 Power Exp. Philos. iii. 157 They recoyl again, and return in a Vortical Motion, and so continue their revolution for ever. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 814 That fear Comes thundring back with dreadful revolution On my defensless head. 1714 R. Fiddes Pract. Disc. ii. 134 To cause a general revolution of the eyes or thoughts of the congregation. 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds I. 99 A sort of Vortex, in which the collective body performs an uniform circular revolution. 1877 R. J. More Under the Balkans xv. 216 Pausing on the completion of each revolution, to kiss the book of the Gospels. 1882 Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 864 The shoot will retain its spiral form for a time, but will then straighten itself and recommence the revolution at its apex. |
b. esp. Movement round an axis or centre; rotation.
| 1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn. II. s.v., In Geometry the Motion of any Figure quite round a fixt Line (which is called therefore its Axis) is called the Revolution of that Figure. a 1721 J. Keill Maupertuis' Diss. (1734) 51 The Diameter of the Equator would infinitely exceed the Axis of Revolution. 1831 Brewster Optics vi. 56 Part of a hyperboloid formed by the revolution of a hyperbola. 1840 Lardner Geom. 222 All the surfaces of revolution composing the same vessel having a common axis. |
c. A single act of rotation round a centre.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey) s.v. Rota Aristotelica, A Wheel..moving..till it has made one entire Revolution. c 1790 J. Imison Sch. Arts I. 30 The number of revolutions a millstone 4½ feet diameter ought to have in a minute. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 488 The pinion will make 10 revolutions while the wheel performs one. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 358 The bobbin-wheel e would make..the same number of revolutions as the main shaft. |
II. † 5. a. The action of turning over in discourse or talk; discussion.
Obs. rare.
| 1456 Paston Lett. I. 388, I pray you..bring not the matier in revolution in the open Courte. 1533 Bellenden Livy ii. xxiv. (S.T.S.) I. 228 The thing..be revolution of diuers tretyis was differrit to þe begynnyng of þe nixt ȝere. |
† b. The action of turning over in the mind; consideration, reflection.
Obs.| 1586 A. Day Eng. Secretary ii. (1625) 17 In the revolution of the same you also doe grant that in all his behaviour you never saw so much as one suspect. 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. v. ii, Answerable to any hourely or half-hourely change in his mistris reuolution. a 1610 Healey Cebes (1636) 160 To which ende you must continue an often reuolution thereof in your meditation. a 1792 Orme in Boswell Johnson an. 1775, Thoughts that by long revolution in the great mind of Johnson have been formed and polished like pebbles rolled in the ocean. |
† c. An idea, opinion, notion.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1675 R. Burthogge Causa Dei 23 A Revolution and Hypothesis to which the Origenium is so like, that I believe it a Daughter. |
III. 6. a. Alteration, change, mutation.
rare.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 4366 It is I, that am come down Thurgh change & revolucioun! 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 98 Heere's fine Reuolution, if wee had the tricke to see't. 1611 C. Tourneur Ath. Trag. i. i, Obseru'st thou not the very self⁓same course Of reuolution, both in Man and Beast? a 1704 T. Brown Persius i. Prol., For thus, sir, modern revolution Has split the wits, t' avoid confusion. a 1718 Penn Maxims Wks. 1726 I. 841 Being, as to our Bodies, composed of Changeable Elements we, with the World, are made up of and subsist by Revolution. |
b. An instance of great change or alteration in affairs or in some particular thing.
| c 1450 Lydg. Secrees 1196 Of Elementys the Revoluciouns, Chaung of tymes and Complexiouns. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 188 We haue vpon euery important reuolution of our businesse dispatched vnto your Lordships both our estate and desires. 1663 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lii. 206 Whereby one may see, how great the revolutions of time and fortune are. 1685 Evelyn Diary 22 May, I chanc'd to pass just as execution was doing on him [Oates]. A strange revolution! 1707 Refl. upon Ridicule 104 There's a general Revolution in his Temper, he's grown haughty. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 92 ¶3 The changes which the mind of man has suffered from the various revolutions of knowledge. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 461 He must feel at once convinced that, in the interval of ten centuries, a great revolution in the language had taken place. 1863 Froude Hist. Eng. VIII. 425 A vast intellectual revolution, of which the religious reformation was rather a sign than a cause. 1870 Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 3 This one material has been the main cause of a complete revolution in our national industry. |
c. Geol. A major mountain-building episode,
esp. one extending over a whole continent or occurring at the close of a geological era.
| 1802 J. Playfair Illustrations Huttonian Theory 2 The earth has been the theatre of many great revolutions, and..nothing on its surface has been exempted from their effects. To trace the series of these revolutions, to explain their causes,.. is the proper object of a Theory of the Earth. 1845 C. Lyell Trav. N. Amer. I. iv. 99 The physical revolutions of the territory at present under consideration. 1863 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. iii. iv. 403 After the long ages of comparative quiet, when the successive Palaeozoic formations were in slow progress, and finally the rock-foundation of the continent east of the Rocky Mountains was nearly completed, a change of great magnitude began, which involved the Appalachian region with the continental border adjoining, and well merits the title of Appalachian revolution. 1915 C. Schuchert in Pirsson & Schuchert Text-bk. Geol. II. xli. 749 During the Appalachian Revolution much of eastern North America was again thrown into pronounced folds, faulted and widely thrust to the west and northwest. 1932 L. C. Snider Earth Hist. iii. 66 Environments of living things change very rapidly during such episodes, and as a result the faunas and floras before a revolution are quite different from those after it. 1978 W. L. Stokes et al. Introd. Geol. xvi. 379/2 There were no strong interactions between plates during the Cambrian Period, but there were extensive collisions during the Middle Ordovician to Devonian (Caledonian Revolution). |
d. the green revolution, a great increase in the production of cereal crops in developing countries consequent on the introduction of high-yield varieties and the application of scientific methods to agriculture.
| 1970 Financial Times 23 Mar. 10/5 The primary factor behind the recovery has been the growth of agricultural output... Of course, the so-called Green Revolution is still very patchy. 1972 Guardian 30 Dec. 12/3 The green revolution took place only in wheat, not the coarse grains, pulses, and rice which the poor prefer. 1976 Sci. Amer. Sept. 31/1 The ‘green revolution’ of the late 1960's represented a significant improvement in grain-crop productivity, primarily in parts of Asia and Latin America. 1977 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXV. 226/1 The Green Revolution, in which new high yielding, short strawed varieties of wheat and rice were introduced into Third World countries. |
7. a. A complete overthrow of the established government in any country or state by those who were previously subject to it; a forcible substitution of a new ruler or form of government.
| 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 175 Assuring those quarters from all reuolutions that might be feared. 1655 Clarke Papers (Camden) IV. 303 Hee was very jealous of the intended revolucion of governm{supt} to his Ma{supt}{supi}⊇{sups} advantage. 1688 Evelyn Diary 2 Dec., The Papists in offices lay down their commissions, and fly..; it looks like a Revolution. 1726 Bolingbroke Study Hist. ii. (1752) 37 King James's maladministration rendered a revolution necessary and practicable. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 281 The apprehensions of Saturninus were justified by the repeated experience of revolutions. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. v. vii. (1872) I. 174 ‘Sire’, answered Liancourt, ‘it is not a revolt, it is a revolution’. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xi. III. 6 The most just and salutary revolution must produce much suffering. 1879 Froude Cæsar xiii. 171 Revolutions are the last desperate remedy when all else has failed. |
b. Without article.
| 1796 tr. St.-Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 668 Rebellion is the subversion of the laws, and Revolution is that of tyrants. 1819 Shelley Peter Bell 3rd iii. vi, There is great talk of revolution—And a great chance of despotism. 1861 Motley in Times 23 May, The right of revolution is indisputable... British and American history is made up of rebellion and revolution. 1892 Speaker 3 Sept. 278/1 In Uruguay it is said that revolution is kept down only by the army. |
c. In the Marxist doctrine of social evolution, the class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat leading in time to the downfall of capitalism and to its replacement by communism; also
continuing revolution,
continuous revolution,
uninterrupted revolution, designating the concept of permanent revolution (
cf. permanent a. 1 d).
| 1850 H. Macfarlane tr. Marx & Engels's Communist Manifesto in Red Republican 16 Nov. 171/3 We have followed the more or less concealed civil war pervading existing society, to the point where it must break forth in an open revolution, and where the Proletarians arrive at the supremacy of their own class through the violent fall of the Bourgeoisie. 1920 B. Russell Pract. & Theory Communism ii. 32 The Third International is an organization which exists to promote the class-war and to hasten the advent of revolution everywhere. 1937 E. H. Carr Internat. Relations iii. 73 The duty of every good Communist was to spread throughout the world the same revolution which had been successful in Russia. 1964 Gould & Kolb Dict. Social Sci. 602/2 According to this [Marxist] view, great political and social revolutions are the instruments of the ‘inevitable’ progress of mankind towards a society in which freedom, self-government, social harmony, and equality will dominate. 1969 S. R. Schram Pol. Thought Mao Tse-tung (rev. ed.) iii. 203 The basic idea, that of a bourgeois-democratic revolution under the hegemony of the proletariat, was to be further developed by Mao Tse-tung. 1975 Chinese Econ. Stud. VIII. iv. 9 Lin Piao's, and other similar swindlers' advocacy of this fallacy was to vainly attempt to use the productivity-first viewpoint as a weapon to oppose the continuing revolution. 1975 J. Plamenatz K. Marx's Philos. of Man i. 26 There is still talk of ‘revolution’ as something that the ‘contradictions’ of capitalism or of ‘bourgeois society’ will bring about, but there is much more uncertainty as to who the makers of the revolution will be. 1977 ‘S. Leys’ Chinese Shadows (1978) viii. 169 The discrimination..between ‘permanent revolution’ (a Trotskyist heresy) and ‘continuous revolution’ (a genial and creative development brought to Marxist thought by Mao Tse-tung). 1978 Fontana Dict. Mod. Thought 464/2 Lenin..thought that the revolution would pass first through the ‘bourgeois’ and then through the ‘socialist’ stage in his scheme of ‘uninterrupted’ revolution. |
8. Eng. Hist. † a. The overthrow of the Rump Parliament in 1660, which resulted in the restoration of the monarchy.
Obs.| a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §209 Many of these excluded members..forbore coming any more to the House for many years, and not before the revolution. 1725 B. Higgons Rem. Burnet i. Wks. 1736 II. 67 And now he approaches the Restoration,..at which not daring openly to repine, he vents all his Spleen on the happy Instrument [Monk] of that glorious Revolution. |
b. The expulsion in 1688 of the Stuart dynasty under James II, and the transfer of sovereignty to William and Mary.
| 1688 Evelyn in Pepys Diary & Corr. (1879) VI. 163, I..send on purpose..to know if, in any sort, I may serve you in this prodigious Revolution. 1689 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) I. 550 There has been also another addresse presented to his majestie from the tinners of Cornwall,..congratulating them on this great revolution. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 208 ¶8 Upon Lady Autumn's disputing with him about something that happened at the Revolution, he replied with a very angry Tone. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Sel. Wks. II. 20 If ever there was a time favourable for establishing the principle, that a king of popular choice was the only legal king,..it was at the Revolution. 1825 Macaulay Milton Ess. (1897) 15 The principles of the Revolution have often been grossly misrepresented. 1855 ― Hist. Eng. xi. III. 15 The Revolution had..placed England in a situation in which the services of a great minister for foreign affairs were indispensable. |
| attrib. 1708 Reply to ‘Bickerstaff Detected’ Swift's Wks. 1755 II. i. 161 A Briton, born, a protestant astrologer, a man of revolution principles. 1738 Gentl. Mag. VIII. 485/2, I mean those Nominal Whigs, whose Principles destroy the old Revolution-Whiggism. 1756 W. Toldervy Hist. 2 Orphans II. 145, I..put a revolution crown into his hand, in order to his returning me the proper change, which he refused to do. 1827 Hallam Const. Hist. xiv. (1876) III. 90 The liberal principles..were necessarily involved in the continuance of the revolution-settlement. 1898 Payne Burke's Sel. Wks. II. 295 The Tories who supported the Hanoverian succession..called themselves ‘Revolution Tories’. |
9. French Hist. The overthrow of the monarchy, and establishment of republican government, in 1789–95.
| 1790 Ann. Reg. Pref., They will..be enabled to trace..the steps which have led to the late astonishing Revolution. 1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. II. 404/1 In all the turbulent days of the revolution, the women of Paris have never failed to act a conspicuous part. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Napoleon, The Revolution entitled..every horse-boy and powder-monkey in the army, to look on Napoleon, as flesh of his flesh. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. xii. (1903) II. 196 The people remained in slavery until the Revolution actually occurred. |
10. Amer. Hist. The overthrow of British supremacy by the War of Independence in 1775–81.
| 1789 D. Ramsay Hist. Amer. Rev. II. 317 The Geography of the United States before the Revolution. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVIII. 928/1 Since the revolution the literature of the State [of New York] has engaged the attention of the legislature. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 112/1 Samuel Adams was one of the firmest and most active patriots of the Revolution. 1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 201/1 This lad..presented himself to the Congress of the Revolution, then sitting in Philadelphia. |
11. Russian Hist. The revolutionary activity of different factions in Russia during 1917 which resulted in the overthrow of the existing regime and the establishment of a socialist state, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Cf. Russian Revolution s.v. Russian a. 2 e.
| 1917 Times 13 Nov. 6/2 The Bolsheviks have dropped their offensive attitude, considering themselves now in the position of organizers of the defence of the Revolution against the armies of Kerensky, Korniloff, and Kaledin. 1932 R. H. B. Lockhart Mem. Brit. Agent iv. iii. 221 A Russian of good family, who long before the revolution had sacrificed a fortune for his Socialist convictions. 1948 B. D. Wolfe Three who made Revol. i. 38 The two decades of Russian history from the Revolutions of 1917 to the purges of 1937. 1959 P. Wiles tr. Schakovskoy's Privilege was Mine x. 107 Another young relative, born after the Revolution, became emotionally involved with a Soviet intellectual. 1978 J. Molyneux Marxism & Party iii. 58 During the rise of the revolution, the Mensheviks were in large part swept along by events. |
12. attrib., as
revolution counter (
= rev-counter s.v. rev n. 2),
revolution indicator. See also sense 8 b.
| 1961 Webster, Revolution counter. 1962 Which? Car Suppl. Oct. 139/1 Loud rattle from revolution counter cable. |
| 1922 Revolution indicator [see air sextant s.v. air n.1 B. III. 6]. |
Hence
revoˈlution v., to revolutionize.
rare.
| 1805 Southey in Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) II. 117 It would not grieve me to see the Austrian dominions revolutioned. 1832 Examiner 803/1 England was revolutioned and all things turned topsy-turvy. |