yellow peril


nounDisparaging and Offensive.
  1. (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.

  2. the Asian peoples regarded as presenting such a danger.

Origin of yellow peril

1
First recorded in 1895–1900
  • Also called yellow terror .

usage note For yellow peril

See yellow.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use yellow peril in a sentence

  • You're discussing my father, whereas I desire to discuss the yellow peril.

    The Pride of Palomar | Peter B. Kyne
  • The yellow peril alarmists may rest assured, for, according to the author, Japan must die a natural death.

    A Fantasy of Far Japan | Baron Kencho Suyematsu
  • The yellow peril alarmists began to talk about Japan as being intent upon seizing Indo-China.

    A Fantasy of Far Japan | Baron Kencho Suyematsu

British Dictionary definitions for yellow peril

yellow peril

noun
  1. the power or alleged power of Asiatic peoples, esp the Chinese, to threaten or destroy the supremacy of White or Western civilization

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for Yellow Peril

Yellow Peril

A supposed threat to the United States posed by Japan and China. The phrase arose in the late nineteenth century, at a time when Japanese and Chinese immigration to America was meeting resistance and when Japan was growing as a military power. (See internment of Japanese Americans.)

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.