Despot
['despɒt] or ['dɛspɑt]
Definition
(n.) A master; a lord; especially, an absolute or irresponsible ruler or sovereign.
(n.) One who rules regardless of a constitution or laws; a tyrant.
Typist: Rebecca
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Autocrat, dictator, tyrant, absolute sovereign, absolute ruler.
Typed by Benjamin
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Tyrant, autocrat
ANT:Slave, subject
Editor: Tod
Definition
n. one invested with absolute power: a tyrant.—n. Des′potat a territory governed by a despot.—adjs. Despot′ic -al pertaining to or like a despot: having absolute power: tyrannical.—adv. Despot′ically.—ns. Despot′icalness Des′potism absolute power: tyranny; Despotoc′racy government by a despot.
Typed by Dido
Examples
- It prefers the rule of its fri ends to the rule of a despot. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- If I were to meet that most unparalleled despot in the streets to-morrow, I would fell him like a rotten tree! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- The Emperor of Morocco is a soulless despot, and the great officers under him are despots on a smaller scale. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- My mother never could endure him, nor I; but he obtained an entire ascendency over my father; and this man was the absolute despot of the estate. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Paul: never, in others, a more waspish little despot. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- And does not the slave system, by denying the slave all legal right of testimony, make every individual owner an irresponsible despot? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- O, my dear brethren and fellow-sojourners in Vanity Fair, which among you does not know and suffer under such benevolent despots? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The consent of the governed is more than a safeguard against ignorant tyrants: it is an insurance against benevolent despots as well. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The Emperor of Morocco is a soulless despot, and the great officers under him are despots on a smaller scale. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Edited by Lancelot