[a. F. terrorisme (1798 in Dict. Acad., Suppl.), f. L. terror dread, TERROR: See -ISM.] A system of terror.
1. Government by intimidation as directed and carried out by the party in power in France during the Revolution of 1789–94; the system of the ‘Terror’ (1793–4): see TERROR sb. 4.
1795. Hist., in Ann. Reg., 112/2. It would … renew the reign of terrorism.
1817. Lady Morgan, France, VIII. (1818), II. 357. He was obliged to remain abroad during the whole reign of terrorism.
1861. Goldw. Smith, Irish Hist., 85. Like … the terrorism of the Jacobins … it was a moral epidemic.
2. gen. A policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation; the fact of terrorizing or condition of being terrorized.
1798. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (ed. 7), 132. The causes of rebellion, insurrection,… terrorism, massacres, and revolutionary murders.
1847. Grote, Greece, II. xxx. IV. 155. He could not but be sensible that this system of terrorism was full of peril to himself.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. ix. (1876), 248. If anyone should disobey the decision of the meeting, he would subject himself … to a social terrorism.
