You searched for: “rabble”
rabble (RAHB uhl) (s) (noun), rabbles (pl)
A mass or gathering of people who may be loud and have the potential to become violent: The airport was swarming with a rabble of people on their way to various summer vacation areas.

Sometimes, the term rabble is used as an insulting term for "common people".

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group R (page 1)
Word Entries containing the term: “rabble”
rabble-rouser, rabble rouser (RAHB uhl-rou" zuhr) (s) (noun); rabble-rousers, rabble rousers (pl)
1. Someone who stirs up anger, violence, the passions, prejudices, or other strong feelings in a crowd; especially, for his or her own personal interests: The rabble-rouser talked to the crowd of students, encouraging them to march and to protest against the new tuition fees at the university.
2. A passionate speaker or orator who capitalizes on the emotions and prejudices of a group of people: Trina, the president of the student body, was considered a rabble-rouser by the administration who feared she would incite student marches.

A master at making rabble-rousing an art form

Michael Moore was considered to be an abrasive filmmaker who staged a frontal assault on the free-enterprise system in one of his films.

Moore's recent film entry this year is "not a sortie against a particular industry. It is a frontal assault on the very idea of American free enterprise; a beast," he called it in a rabble-rousing speech to an audience in Toronto, Canada.

Moore has come out with a film that concludes that capitalism is evil. American liberals have classified him as an "egomaniac, glutton, exploiter, embarrassment, and slob". The derogatory terms applicable to Moore by others was not mentioned.

In the last few years, his personal mood is said to have wavered between what he called "passive despair and outright anger".

—Compiled from "Rabble-rousing as an art form" by
Bruce Headlam in the The Global Edition of the New York Times;
as seen in the International Herald Tribune;
September 19-20, 2009; pages 9-10.
Someone who arouses prejudices and passions.
© ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

This entry is located in the following unit: English Words in Action, Group R (page 1)