violence

violence
    n 1: an act of aggression (as one against a person who resists);
         "he may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot
         do by force and violence in the short one" [syn:
         {violence}, {force}]
    2: the property of being wild or turbulent; "the storm's
       violence" [syn: {ferocity}, {fierceness}, {furiousness},
       {fury}, {vehemence}, {violence}, {wildness}]
    3: a turbulent state resulting in injuries and destruction etc.
    

Violence \Vi"o*lence\, n. [F., fr. L. violentia. See {Violent}.]
   1. The quality or state of being violent; highly excited
      action, whether physical or moral; vehemence; impetuosity;
      force.
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            That seal
            You ask with such a violence, the king,
            Mine and your master, with his own hand gave me.
                                                  --Shak.
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            All the elements
            At least had gone to wrack, disturbed and torn
            With the violence of this conflict.   --Milton.
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   2. Injury done to that which is entitled to respect,
      reverence, or observance; profanation; infringement;
      unjust force; outrage; assault.
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            Do violence to do man.                --Luke iii.
                                                  14.
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            We can not, without offering violence to all
            records, divine and human, deny an universal deluge.
                                                  --T. Burnet.
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            Looking down, he saw
            The whole earth filled with violence. --Milton.
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   3. Ravishment; rape; constupration.
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   {To do violence on}, to attack; to murder. "She . . . did
      violence on herself." --Shak.

   {To do violence to}, to outrage; to injure; as, he does
      violence to his own opinions.
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   Syn: Vehemence; outrage; fierceness; eagerness; violation;
        infraction; infringement; transgression; oppression.
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Violence \Vi"o*lence\, v. t.
   To assault; to injure; also, to bring by violence; to compel.
   [Obs.] --B. Jonson.
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VIOLENCE. The abuse of force. Theorie des Lois Criminelles, 32. That force 
which is employed against common right, against the laws, and against public 
liberty. Merl. h. t, 2. In cases of robbery, in order to convict the 
accused, it is requisite to prove that the act was done with violence; but 
this violence is not confined to an actual assault of the person, by 
beating, knocking down, or forcibly wresting from him on the contrary, 
whatever goes to intimidate or overawe, by the apprehension of personal 
violence, or by fear of life, with a view to compel the delivery of property 
equally falls within its limits. Alison, Pr. Cr. Law of Scotl. 228; 4 Binn. 
R. 379; 2 Russ. on Cr. 61; 1 Hale P. C. 553. When an article is merely 
snatched, as by a sudden pull, even though a momentary force be exerted, it 
is not such violence as to constitute a robbery. 2 East, P. C. 702; 2 Russ. 
Cr. 68; Dig. 4, 2, 2 and 3. 
    

148 Moby Thesaurus words for "violence":
      Alecto, Megaera, Nemesis, Tisiphone, abuse, acerbity, acidity,
      acridity, acrimony, agitability, animality, argumentum baculinum,
      assault, astringency, atrociousness, atrocity, attack, barbarity,
      barbarousness, beastliness, bestiality, bite, bitterness,
      bloodiness, bloodlust, bloodthirst, bloodthirstiness,
      bloody-mindedness, brutality, brutalness, brute force, brutishness,
      burning rage, cannibalism, causticity, clash, coercion,
      combustibility, compulsion, constraint, cruelness, cruelty, damage,
      destructiveness, distort, do violence to, duress, edge, edginess,
      emotional instability, emotionalism, energy, eruptiveness,
      excitability, excitableness, explosiveness, ferociousness,
      ferocity, fiendishness, fierceness, foul, frenzy, furious rage,
      furor, fury, grip, harm, harshness, high pressure, ill-treatment,
      ill-usage, ill-use, inflammability, inhumaneness, inhumanity,
      injure, injury, intensity, intimidation, irascibility,
      irritability, keenness, latent violence, maltreatment, might,
      mightiness, mistreatment, molestation, mordacity, mordancy,
      murderousness, nervousness, outrage, passion, perturbability,
      physical force, poignancy, point, power, pressure, prickliness,
      rage, rigor, roughness, ruthlessness, sadism, sadistic cruelty,
      sanguineousness, savagery, sensitivity, severity, sharpness,
      skittishness, startlishness, sting, strength, stridency,
      stringency, strong-arm tactics, tartness, tearing passion, teeth,
      tempestuousness, the Erinyes, the Eumenides, the Furies,
      the big stick, the bludgeon, the club, the jackboot,
      the mailed fist, the strong arm, the sword, touchiness,
      towering rage, trenchancy, truculence, twist, uproar, vandalism,
      vehemence, viciousness, vigor, violation, virulence,
      wanton cruelty, warp, wildness