Meaning & use
rebel
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Meanings
verbintransitive
To fight against or refuse to obey a government, ruler or other authority.
Grammar: No object; usually followed by against: the colonists rebelled against the crown.
Patterns
- rebel against someone
- rebel against something
The workers rebelled against the new rules.
In 1775 the colonies rebelled against British rule.
The villagers rebelled when taxes doubled.
verbintransitive
To refuse to follow accepted rules or ideas, often in a deliberate show of independence.
Grammar: No object; often with against: teenagers rebel against their parents.
Patterns
- rebel against something
- rebel against someone
As a teenager, she rebelled against her strict upbringing.
He rebelled by dyeing his hair bright green.
The young designers rebelled against traditional fashion.
nouncountable
A person who fights against or refuses to obey a ruler, government or set of rules.
Grammar: The noun is stressed on the first syllable (REB-el); the verb on the second (re-BEL).
Patterns
- a rebel against something
- rebel forces
The rebels took control of the northern towns.
She was a rebel at school and hated uniforms.
Rebel leaders met in secret to plan the uprising.
Word forms
| third person singular | rebels |
|---|---|
| past tense | rebelled |
| past participle | rebelled |
| -ing form | rebelling |
| plural noun | rebels |
Common combinations
- rebel against authority
- Many young people rebel against authority at some stage.
- openly rebel
- The soldiers openly rebelled and refused the order.
- rebel against the system
- The band rebelled against the music industry system.
- rebel forces
- Rebel forces captured the capital last night.
- a born rebel
- Even as a child he was a born rebel.
Synonyms and how they differ
- revolt
- Revolt usually means a violent rising against a government, while rebel can be small and personal, like defying parents.
- resist
- Resist means to push back or refuse to give in, but it does not necessarily involve open defiance like rebel does.
- defy
- Defy takes a direct object (defy the order) and stresses openly refusing to obey, whereas rebel normally takes against.
- mutiny
- Mutiny is limited to soldiers or sailors rising against their officers, which is much narrower than rebel.
Opposites
Word family
- rebellion noun
- an organized attempt to overthrow authority, or an act of defiance
- rebellious adjective
- unwilling to obey rules or authority
- rebelliously adverb
- in a defiant, disobedient way
- rebelliousness noun
- the quality of resisting authority
Commonly confused: rebel or repel? rebel or revel?
rebel vs repel
Repel means to drive something away or to disgust; it is not about defying authority, and it sounds a little like rebel.
rebel vs revel
Revel means to enjoy yourself noisily or take great pleasure in something, and has nothing to do with disobedience.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
Rebel is intransitive and takes against. 'Rebelled the rules' lacks the preposition, while to and about do not combine with rebel in this sense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rebel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.