anarchic

From anarchy +‎ -ic.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ænˈɑː.kɪk/, /əˈnɑː.kɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ænˈɑɹ.kɪk/, /əˈnɑɹ.kɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)kɪk

anarchic (comparative more anarchic, superlative most anarchic)

1. Relating to, supporting, or likely to cause anarchy.
2. Chaotic, without law or order.
   • 1993, Ernst Jünger, Eumeswil, page 41:

     Distinctions must be drawn here: love is anarchic, marriage is not.

   • 1998, Andrew Herod, Susan M. Roberts, An Unruly World?: Globalization, Governance, and Geography, page 174:

     The first of these is the potential for Central and Eastern Europe to become a region of unfettered and anarchic free market capitalism.

3. (somewhat derogatory, uncommon) Free-spirited; not bound by the rigors or expectations of society.
   • 1979 April 28, Gerry McNamara, “Life for Art's Sake”, in Gay Community News, page 11:

     Lying is just another word for language at its most anarchic, free from any allegiance, or debt, to things as they are.

   • 1995, Elazar Barkan, Ronald Bush, Prehistories of the Future, page 150:

     Frazer comments on this tendency of his text not only directly, in the preface already quoted, but also indirectly, by taking as one of his principal themes various saturnalian festivals that, in their glorification of "general license, during which the ordinary restraints of society are thrown aside" (ibid., p. 666), in effect bring the principle of free play to its supreme, virtually anarchic expression.

   • 1997, Andrea O'Reilly Herrera, Elizabeth Mahn Nollen, Family Matters in the British and American Novel, page 180:

     Wharton's anarchic celebration of a particular, “ illegitimate," passionate motherhood allows her to launch a devastating critique of "legitimate" family life within marriage and to reveal the centrality of female, sexual desire to her tales and the lives of her characters.

   • 2006, Liz Aggiss, “Reconstruction: or why you can never step into the same river twice”, in Liz Aggiss, Billy Cowie, editor, Anarchic Dance, page 145:

     Revisiting The Wild Wigglers signified how anarchic, original and formative this work had been and how it informed and shaped our subsequent choreographic and performative language.

   • 2013, Ajay Heble, Rob Wallace, People Get Ready: The Future of Jazz Is Now!, page 121:

     Previously, jazz had encompassed a continual history of supposed death throes—be it the arrival of "sweet," white big-band music; militant bebop; softer cool jazz; or, finally, anarchic free jazz and rock-influenced fusion.

• Not to be confused with anarchist, which has a slightly different meaning.

• anarchial (obsolete)

• characin