as in totalitarian
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Recent Examples of jackbooted
Karol let those lines here serve as her brief indictment of the present, jackbooted environment around immigration and repression in the United States.
—
Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 13 Apr. 2026
Cooper was obsessed with the New World Order and the actions of jackbooted government enforcers against the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and white separatist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
—Andrew Stuttaford, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2018
Likethumb_up Replyreply Linklink Copy Reportflag eraley 22 minutes ago
Trump’s America and his jackbooted thugs.
—Marwa Eltagouri, Washington Post, 28 May 2018
These are the words and actions similar to low-level criminals in the mob or jackbooted followers of fascist leaders in 1930s Europe, not the president of the United States in 2018.
—David Zurawik, baltimoresun.com, 26 Mar. 2018
But what makes director Jeremy Wechsler’s production engaging throughout is the way the cast commits to these characters without turning them into caricatures of either obsessive-nerd culture or jackbooted thugs.
—Kerry Reid, chicagotribune.com, 31 Jan. 2018
Was Rizzo a jackbooted tyrant who went out of his way to punish blacks and gays?
—David Gambacorta, Philly.com, 22 Aug. 2017
For some, the racist taunts of the past few days recalled a time when jackbooted members of the far-right National Front taunted immigrants on the streets of Britain in the 1980s, during the painful deindustrialization of the Thatcher era.
—Dan Bilefsky, New York Times, 27 June 2016
Mikael Wood, Los Angeles Times, 13 Apr. 2026
Cooper was obsessed with the New World Order and the actions of jackbooted government enforcers against the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, and white separatist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
—Andrew Stuttaford, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2018
Likethumb_up Replyreply Linklink Copy Reportflag eraley 22 minutes ago
Trump’s America and his jackbooted thugs.
—Marwa Eltagouri, Washington Post, 28 May 2018
These are the words and actions similar to low-level criminals in the mob or jackbooted followers of fascist leaders in 1930s Europe, not the president of the United States in 2018.
—David Zurawik, baltimoresun.com, 26 Mar. 2018
But what makes director Jeremy Wechsler’s production engaging throughout is the way the cast commits to these characters without turning them into caricatures of either obsessive-nerd culture or jackbooted thugs.
—Kerry Reid, chicagotribune.com, 31 Jan. 2018
Was Rizzo a jackbooted tyrant who went out of his way to punish blacks and gays?
—David Gambacorta, Philly.com, 22 Aug. 2017
For some, the racist taunts of the past few days recalled a time when jackbooted members of the far-right National Front taunted immigrants on the streets of Britain in the 1980s, during the painful deindustrialization of the Thatcher era.
—Dan Bilefsky, New York Times, 27 June 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for jackbooted
Adjective
-
But authorities in Russia appear intent on embracing the country’s dark, totalitarian past.—
Nathan Hodge,
CNN Money,
26 Apr. 2026
-
Orwell famously wrote the book as a response to the dangers of totalitarian rule, particularly the Russian Revolution in 1917.—
Carly Tagen-Dye,
PEOPLE,
22 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
An especially visually striking debut, Mosquitoes exists in a saturated hyperreality that is consummately engrossing, and announces the Bertani sisters as formidable portraitists of girlhood cast against the backdrop of an alternately beautiful and oppressive world.—
Zac Ntim,
Deadline,
29 Apr. 2026
-
Snakes, freeways, difficult men and Didion’s quiet brutality hang in the air like the oppressive heat of this unusually warm spring day.—
Maddie Connors,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Advertisement The orthodox and authoritarian left in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has, in many ways, sabotaged and delayed the renewal of the Latin American left.—
Carlos Manuel Alvarez,
Time,
24 Apr. 2026
-
Snow’s life’s work has been sustaining a Hobbesian authoritarian government.—
Lizz Schumer,
PEOPLE,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Beyond blood, these women are tied together by destiny and the decisions of the violent and tyrannical men surrounding them.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
29 Apr. 2026
-
All the orchestration and glamour of the rally, the glory of the Leader, was meant to tell a story—of a nation wounded from within, of a fifth column, of tyrannical foreign countries, of an economic crisis, and of a grandiose account of renewal and coming greatness.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Hard to Be a God is about a planet that has not been allowed to advance beyond the Middle Ages, and descended into a filthy, despotic, and violent world.—
James Folta,
Literary Hub,
14 Apr. 2026
-
Remarkably, among the foremost critics of Cuba’s single-party despotic rule is one of Castro’s own daughters, Alina Fernández Revuelta.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
11 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
In Russia, czarist monuments were replaced by statues of Communist leaders, which in turn were torn down — statues of Stalin also fell in Hungary, Georgia and Albania.—
Culture Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
1 Apr. 2026
-
Compared to their forerunners in the tsarist era, with their party congresses held abroad, their executive committees, and their active recruitment in imperial Russia’s universities, Soviet dissidents remained a comparatively small and informal conglomeration of activists.—
Benjamin Nathans
September 24,
Literary Hub,
24 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
The authority’s popularity has been weakened by corruption and autocratic rule, its failure to establish an independent state while Israel expands West Bank settlements, and divisions with Hamas.—
Sam Metz,
Los Angeles Times,
25 Apr. 2026
-
The country was once very free online, remarkable given President Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule, but more recently access to global messaging apps has been restricted and the internet has been completely shut down at times as Moscow has sought to silence criticism.—
Semafor Events,
semafor.com,
24 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
These tyrannous tabbies don’t understand that canning is not exclusively for wet food.—
Julie Klausner,
Vulture,
27 Dec. 2024
-
Indeed, Daniel Roher’s pulse-pumping documentary about the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has all the ingredients: a mysterious case of near-fatal poisoning, a web of for-hire hoodlums, Vladimir Putin as the tyrannous leader behind it all.—
Tomris Laffly,
Harper's BAZAAR,
1 Feb. 2022
Cite this Entry
“Jackbooted.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jackbooted. Accessed 1 May. 2026.
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