English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Napoleon +‎ -ize

Verb edit

Napoleonize (third-person singular simple present Napoleonizes, present participle Napoleonizing, simple past and past participle Napoleonized)

  1. (transitive) To rule completely.
  2. (transitive) To aggrandize.
    • 2004, Robert J. Higgs, God in the Stadium: Sports and Religion in America, University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 80:
      This did Thayer in a little over a decade Napoleonize the Military Academy and move it far to the right of what was intended by its founders, blending in typical knightly style the ideal of formal religious worship and a highly regulated system of physiacl training, as well as a tattletale system of honor.