tyrant

• WordNet 3.6
  • n tyrant a cruel and oppressive dictator
  • n tyrant any person who exercises power in a cruel way "his father was a tyrant"
  • n tyrant in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it
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• • Tyrant An absolute ruler; a sovereign unrestrained by law or constitution; a usurper of sovereignty.
  • Tyrant (Zoöl) Any one of numerous species of American clamatorial birds belonging to the family Tyrannidæ; -- called also tyrant bird.
  • Tyrant 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. "This false tyrant , this Nero.""Love, to a yielding heart, is a king, but to a resisting, is a tyrant ."
  • v. i Tyrant To act like a tyrant; to play the tyrant; be to tyrannical.
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• • n tyrant In ancient Greece, an irresponsible chief or magistrate with unlimited powers, owing his office primarily to insurrection or usurpation. The first tyrants, so called, were generally the leaders of risings against the oligarchies during the seventh and sixth centuries b. c. They ruled with the popular consent in nearly all the Greek states and colonies at one time or another, transmitting their power to their heirs until democracies or new oligarchies overthrew them. Others raised themselves to the position by direct conquest or conspiracy. The arbitrary government of the tyrants was sometimes beneficent, but more often extremely oppressive and cruel. The typical tyrant in the latter sense of the word was Dionysius the Elder, of Syracuse (405–367 b. c.).
  • n tyrant 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.
  • n tyrant A tyrannical or compulsory influence; something that constrains the will inexorably; an overruling power.
  • n tyrant In ornithology, a tyrant-flycatcher; one of the Tyrannidæ.
  • tyrant To tyrannize over.
  • tyrant To play the tyrant; tyrannize: sometimes with indefinite it.
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• • n Tyrant tī′rant one who uses his power arbitrarily and oppressively:
  • v.t Tyrant to tyrannise over
  • v.t Tyrant to play the tyrant over
  • v.t Tyrant to act the tyrant to
  • n Tyrant tī′rant (orig.) an absolute monarch or irresponsible magistrate with unlimited powers or an overruling influence
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• Francois De La Rochefoucauld

  

  “Old age is a tyrant, who forbids, under pain of death, the pleasures of youth.”
• Marquis De Sade

  

  “One weeps not save when one is afraid, and that is why kings are tyrants.”
• Proverb

  

  “Custom is a tyrant.”
• Ambrose Bierce

  

  “Destiny. A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.”
• Mahatma Gandhi

  

  “The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
• William Ellery Channing

  

  “The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts.”

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