[a. Sp. vigilante VIGILANT a.]
1. U.S. A member of a Vigilance Committee.
1860. N. Y. Times, 23 July, 1/4. Everybody is either a vigilante or a law-and-order man.
1865. A. D. Richardson, Beyond Mississippi (1867), 487. The power [in Montana] is vested in the ‘Vigilantes,’ a secret tribunal of citizens, organized before civil laws were framed.
1883. Cent. Mag., XXIX. 194/2. An old-time Virginia City vigilante.
1888. Pall Mall G., 4 Sept., 7/2. Forty well-armed vigilantes surrounded the camp and sent in a committee … to demand the surrender of the thieves.
2. A night-watchman.
1899. F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 78. We … found a big jug of water, which Zeke carefully poured upon the head of the muttering vigilante.
