Tyrant
['taɪr(ə)nt] or ['taɪrənt]
Definition
(noun.) a cruel and oppressive dictator.
(noun.) any person who exercises power in a cruel way; 'his father was a tyrant'.
(noun.) in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it.
Inputed by Agnes--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) An absolute ruler; a sovereign unrestrained by law or constitution; a usurper of sovereignty.
(n.) 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.
(n.) Any one of numerous species of American clamatorial birds belonging to the family Tyrannidae; -- called also tyrant bird.
(v. i.) To act like a tyrant; to play the tyrant; to tyrannical.
Edited by Ellis
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Despot, absolute ruler.[2]. Oppressor, cruel master.
Inputed by Cherie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Despot, persecutor, oppressor,[See ARBITRARY]
Editor: Randolph
Definition
n. one who uses his power arbitrarily and oppressively: (orig.) an absolute monarch or irresponsible magistrate with unlimited powers or an overruling influence.—v.t. to tyrannise over.—n. Ty′ran (Spens.) a tyrant.—v.t. to play the tyrant over.—n. Tyr′anness (Spens.) a female tyrant.—adjs. Tyran′nic -al Tyr′annous pertaining to or suiting a tyrant: unjustly severe: imperious: despotic.—advs. Tyran′nically Tyr′annously.—n. Tyran′nicalness.—adj. Tyran′nicidal.—n. Tyran′nicide the act of killing a tyrant: one who kills a tyrant.—n.pl. Tyran′nid?/span> a family of Passerine birds the typical genus Tyran′nus the tyrant-birds or tyrant-flycatchers.—v.i. Tyr′annise to act as a tyrant: to rule with oppressive severity.—v.t. to act the tyrant to.—adj. Tyr′annish.—n. Tyr′anny the government or authority of a tyrant: absolute monarchy cruelly administered: oppression: cruelty: harshness.
Inputed by Kelly
Examples
- But if so, the tyrant will live most unpleasantly, and the king most pleasantly? Plato. The Republic.
- The broken-spirited, old, maternal grandfather was likewise subject to the little tyrant. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Courage and ambition, when not regulated by benevolence, are fit only to make a tyrant and public robber. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- No; but it can give varieties of pain, and prevent us from breaking our hearts with a single tyrant master-torture. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Beginning with the State, I replied, would you say that a city which is governed by a tyrant is free or enslaved? Plato. The Republic.
- To put it briefly, democracy is afraid of the tyrant. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The republicans are fast making a tyrant of their own flesh and blood. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Then comparing our original city, which was under a king, and the city which is under a tyrant, how do they stand as to virtue? Plato. The Republic.
- In a well-ordered State there are only a few such, and these in time of war go out and become the mercenaries of a tyrant. Plato. The Republic.
- The tyrant is the third removed from the oligarch, and has therefore, not a shadow of his pleasure, but the shadow of a shadow only. Plato. The Republic.
- And the State which is enslaved under a tyrant is utterly incapable of acting voluntarily? Plato. The Republic.
- That black-coated tyrant's niece--that quiet, delicate Miss Helstone. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I think he said it was the worst tyrant of all. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- And is not this the reason why of old love has been called a tyrant? Plato. The Republic.
- He made war against France, he said, because Napoleon was a tyrant, to free the French people. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- In Greece they were called _tyrants_. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- It is those who injure women who get the most kindness from them--they are born timid and tyrants and maltreat those who are humblest before them. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I chiefly fed mine eyes with beholding the destroyers of tyrants and usurpers, and the restorers of liberty to oppressed and injured nations. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- By-and-by they'll find out, tyrants makes liars. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- 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.
- There is no need to suppose that he drew from life; or that his knowledge of tyrants is derived from a personal acquaintance with Dionysius. Plato. The Republic.
- As they say, the persons who hate Irishmen most are Irishmen; so, assuredly, the greatest tyrants over women are women. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- All princes who are disposed to become tyrants must probably approve of this opinion, and be willing to establish it; but is it not a dangerous one? Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Like other tyrants, I carried my point. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- So dunnot turn faint-heart, and go to th' tyrants a-seeking work. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Tyrants were distinguished from kings, who claimed some sort of right, some family priority, for example, to rule. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Euripides exhibited the last phase of the tragic drama, and in him Plato saw the friend and apologist of tyrants, and the Sophist of tragedy. Plato. The Republic.
- Madmen like Pitt, demons like Castlereagh, mischievous idiots like Perceval, were the tyrants, the curses of the country, the destroyers of her trade. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- When, later on, the Persians began to subjugate the Greek cities of Asia Minor, they set up pro-Persian tyrants. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Not least among the blessings is a shattering of the good-and-bad-man theory: the assassination of tyrants or the adoration of saviors. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Typed by Julie