noun
- (in the French Revolution) a member of a radical society or club of revolutionaries that promoted the Reign of Terror and other extreme measures, active chiefly from 1789 to 1794: so called from the Dominican convent in Paris, where they originally met.
- an extreme radical, especially in politics.
- a Dominican friar.
- (lowercase) one of a fancy breed of domestic pigeons having neck feathers that hang over the head like a hood.
noun
- a member of the most radical club founded during the French Revolution, which overthrew the Girondists in 1793 and, led by Robespierre, instituted the Reign of Terror
- a leftist or extreme political radical
- a French Dominican friar
- (sometimes not capital) a variety of fancy pigeon with a hood of feathers swept up over and around the head
adjective
- of, characteristic of, or relating to the Jacobins or their policies
early 14c., of the order of Dominican friars whose order built its first convent near the church of Saint-Jacques in Paris, from Old French Jacobin (13c.) “Dominican friar,” also, in the Middle East, “a Copt;” see Jacob. The Revolutionary extremists took up quarters there October 1789. Used generically of radicals and allegedly radical reformers since 1793. Related: Jacobinism.