Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Maccabees \Mac"ca*bees\, n. pl.
   1. The name given later times to the Asmon[ae]ans, a family
      of Jewish patriots, who headed a religious revolt in the
      reign of Antiochus IV., 168-161 B. C., which led to a
      period of freedom for Israel. --Schaff-Herzog.

   2. The name of two ancient historical books, which give
      accounts of Jewish affairs in or about the time of the
      Maccabean princes, and which are received as canonical
      books in the Roman Catholic Church, but are included in
      the Apocrypha by Protestants. Also applied to three books,
      two of which are found in some MSS. of the Septuagint.