Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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phrase
A slogan, associated during the American Revolutionary War with freedom from British rule, and in more recent years with libertarianism and anti-government sentiments.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
Topics: government, politics
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Calque of Late Latin nōlī mē tangere (literally “do not touch me”), from John 20:17 in the Bible. The phrase was initially rendered as dont tread on me, without apostrophe, as dont was then an accepted contraction of do not. In some later versions, due to standards for apostrophes becoming more strict since the 18th century, the first word was changed to don't.
