Meanings
plural noyades
- historicalA murder by drowning, especially one of those carried out during the French Reign of Terror.
By degrees, daylight itself witnesses Noyades: women and men are tied together, feet and feet, hands and hands; and flung in: this they call Mariage Républicain, Republican Marriage.
1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number)1 more example
Alongside this, there were the infamous noyades: perhaps 2,000 alleged counter-revolutionaries strapped in to barges were towed into the river Loire where the barges were scuppered, leaving the victims to drown.
2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 486
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Frenchnoyade
- Englishnoyade
From French noyade.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
noyade. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noyade
“noyade.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noyade. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “noyade,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/noyade.
Source: noyade on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.