Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An extremely oppressive, unjust, or cruel ruler.
- noun An absolute ruler who governs without restrictions, especially one who seized power illegally.
- noun An oppressive, harsh, arbitrary person.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To tyrannize over.
- To play the tyrant; tyrannize: sometimes with indefinite it.
- noun In ancient Greece, an irresponsible chief or magistrate with unlimited powers, owing his office primarily to insurrection or usurpation.
- noun Hence A wilfully arbitrary monarch or person in authority; a ruler or master who uses his power cruelly or oppressively; any person who treats those bound to him in any way as slaves to his will; an autocratic oppressor.
- noun A tyrannical or compulsory influence; something that constrains the will inexorably; an overruling power.
- noun In ornithology, a tyrant-flycatcher; one of the Tyrannidæ.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb obsolete To act like a tyrant; to play the tyrant; be to tyrannical.
- noun An absolute ruler; a sovereign unrestrained by law or constitution; a usurper of sovereignty.
- noun Specifically, a monarch, or other ruler or master, who uses power to oppress his subjects; a person who exercises unlawful authority, or lawful authority in an unlawful manner; one who by taxation, injustice, or cruel punishment, or the demand of unreasonable services, imposes burdens and hardships on those under his control, which law and humanity do not authorize, or which the purposes of government do not require; a cruel master; an oppressor.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of American clamatorial birds belonging to the family
Tyrannidæ ; -- called alsotyrant bird . - noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of tyrants which have a flattened bill, toothed at the tip, and resemble the true flycatchers in habits. The Acadian flycatcher (
Empidonax Acadicus ) and the vermilion flycatcher (Pyrocephalus rubineus ) are examples. - noun (Zoöl.) any one of numerous species of American tyrants of the genus Tyrannus having a strong toothed bill and resembling the shrikes in habits. The kingbird is an example.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An
absolute ruler whogoverns withoutrestriction . - noun A
harsh andcruel ruler. - noun An
oppressive ,cruel andharsh person . - verb obsolete To act like a tyrant; to be
tyrannical .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any person who exercises power in a cruel way
- noun in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it
- noun a cruel and oppressive dictator
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Your Lordships will find that he never is a rebel to one party without being a tyrant to some others; that _rebel_ and _tyrant_ are correlative terms, when applied to him, and that they constantly go together.
The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 12 (of 12) Edmund Burke 1763
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Iraq is a prime example Wikipedia informs us that "like the term tyrant, originally a respectable Ancient Greek title, and to a lesser degree autocrat, it came to be used almost exclusively as a non-titular term for oppressive, even abusive rule, yet had rare modern titular uses."
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And, while the word "penance" does not appear in the 1611 Bible, in deference to the Puritans, neither does the word "tyrant", in deference to the king.
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Al – Thauri that he said, ‘To look upon the face of a tyrant is a sin.’
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The destruction of Eglon the tyrant is the deliverance of oppressed Israel from the Moabites.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation) 1721
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The word tyrant is originally a Chaldee word, and is often used for lords by the Chaldee paraphrast, as if the Chaldeans, when they were lords, tyrannized more than any other: we have reason to think that the poor Jews had reason to say so.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721
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But the Greek authors in general have used the word tyrant in another sense, as appears particularly in the Hiero of Xenophon; and, indeed, from Aristotle’s distinction we must conclude there has not existed a single king from the commencement of the world.
The Social Contract Jean Jacques Rousseau 1947
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Ali Abdsalaam is among the many ordinary Libyans who want to see justice for the leader he calls a tyrant.
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For Ali Abdsalaam, he wants the man he calls a tyrant brought to justice.
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For Ali Abdsalaam, he wants the man he calls a tyrant brought to justice.
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