See Also: anarchy(dictionary)
anarchy(dictionary)
ANARCHY(law)

anarchy (iou)



anarchy noun. M16.
[medieval Latin anarchia from Greek anarkhia, formed as ANARCH: see -Y3.]
Absence of government in a society (orig. as a source of civil disorder, later also as a political ideal); a state of political or social confusion; absolute freedom of the individual. M16.
Carlyle Without sovereigns, true sovereigns, temporal and spiritual, I see nothing possible but an anarchy; the hatefullest of things. C. V. Wedgwood Meanwhile the country, lacking any accepted government, slipped towards anarchy. G. K. Roberts Anarchy The organisation of society on the basis of voluntary cooperation, and especially without the agency of political institutions, i.e. the state.
transf. & fig. Absence or non-recognition of authority in any sphere; moral or intellectual conflict; a state of disorder; chaos. M17.
A. Cowley Thousand worse Passions then possesst The Interregnum of my Breast. Bless me from such an Anarchy! Chesterfield Our language is..in a state of anarchy. M. Beerbohm An anarchy of small curls.
a'narchial adjective (now rare) = anarchical E18.
a'narchic adjective = anarchical L18.
a'narchical adjective of or pertaining to anarchy; disorderly; unregulated: L16.
a'narchically adverb L19.
anarchize verb trans. (rare) reduce to anarchy E19.
a'narcho- combining form [-O-] involving anarchy and, used esp. in
anarcho-syndicalism,
anarcho-syndicalist nouns (a supporter of) a movement aiming at the transfer of the means of industrial production to unions of workers M20.