DIRTY WAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dirty war mean? 

• DIRTY WAR (noun)
  The noun DIRTY WAR has 1 sense:

1. an offensive conducted by secret police or the military of a regime against revolutionary and terrorist insurgents and marked by the use of kidnapping and torture and murder with civilians often being the victims

  Familiarity information: DIRTY WAR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIRTY WAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An offensive conducted by secret police or the military of a regime against revolutionary and terrorist insurgents and marked by the use of kidnapping and torture and murder with civilians often being the victims

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

thousands of people disappeared and were killed during Argentina's dirty war in the late 1970s

Hypernyms ("dirty war" is a kind of...):

offence; offense; offensive (the action of attacking an enemy)

Domain category:

act of terrorism; terrorism; terrorist act (the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear)