Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or practice of an incendiary; malicious burning.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or practice of maliciously setting fires; arson.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or practice of burning property; arson.
  • noun figuratively Inflammatory or provocative action; instigation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun malicious burning to destroy property

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From incendiary +‎ -ism.

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Examples

  • All persons who, during the past year, had fallen into gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery, witchcraft, and so forth, were expected to contribute 28 ngugas, or a little over £2.

    The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion 1922

  • All persons who, during the past year, had fallen into gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery, witchcraft, and so forth, were expected to contribute 28 ngugas, or a little over £2.

    Chapter 57. Public Scapegoats. § 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils in a Material Vehicle 1922

  • All persons who, during the past year, had fallen into gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery, witchcraft, and so forth, were expected to contribute 28 _ngugas, _ or a little over £2.

    The Golden Bough James George Frazer 1897

  • All persons who, during the past year, had fallen into gross sins, such as incendiarism, theft, adultery, witchcraft, and so forth, were expected to contribute 28 ngugas, or a little over £2.

    The Golden Bough : a study of magic and religion 1583

  • This red banner, by the way, symbolizes the brotherhood of man, and does not symbolize the incendiarism that instantly connects itself with the red banner in the affrighted bourgeois mind.

    Revolution 2010

  • The time of philosophizing congresses was over; instead of the old portraits, a light patch shone from Ivanov's wallpaper; philosophical incendiarism had given place to a period of wholesome sterility.

    Autumn Thomas Plastino Martin 2010

  • "I did not even know it hatred from "the long-dead days of the religious wars" existed, did not realize at all how persistent such a hatred could be when there was nothing to excite it" except "the Klan's brilliant incendiarism."

    THE NEWS BLOG 2005

  • It all happened just after a celebrated case of incendiarism; the preliminary investigation lasted two days; we were exhausted.

    The Wife 2004

  • TAYLOR: We know that they were an act of incendiarism, that they were deliberately set.

    CNN Transcript Dec 6, 2004 2004

  • This old woman and her son were accused of incendiarism.

    Resurrection 2003

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