riot act in English
noun
1
a law passed by the British government in 1715 and repealed in 1967, designed to prevent civil disorder. The act made it a felony for an assembly of more than twelve people to refuse to disperse after being ordered to do so and having been read a specified section of the act by lawful authority.
Use "riot act" in a sentence
Below are sample sentences containing the word "riot act" from the English Dictionary. We can refer to these sentence patterns for sentences in case of finding sample sentences with the word "riot act", or refer to the context using the word "riot act" in the English Dictionary.
1. 28 In this way did Mutt read the riot act to Albert and his disobedient friends.
2. However, instead of showing a conciliatory approach, the authorities immediately read the Riot Act, and made two arrests.
3. 16 He'd put up with a lot of bad behaviour from his son and thought it was time to read him the riot act.