tyrannize
English edit
Alternative forms edit
- tyrannise (non-Oxford British English)
Etymology edit
From Middle French tyranniser, equivalent to tyranny + -ize.
Verb edit
tyrannize (third-person singular simple present tyrannizes, present participle tyrannizing, simple past and past participle tyrannized)
- (transitive) To oppress (someone).
- 1929, Edgar Wallace, “The Tyrant of the House”, in The Iron Grip[1], London: George Newnes:
- In truth he was the type of man who is spoilt by the submission of weaker people than himself. There are such men, who must either be tyrannized or be tyrants […]
- 2001, Breena Clarke, “Roots of Success” (review of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker by A’Lelia Bundles), Chicago Tribune, 18 February, 2001,[2]
- I spent the first 18 years of my life tyrannized by a red-hot hair-pressing comb. Well, maybe tyrannized is an exaggeration. But covering your ears while hot grease sizzles nearby is not a young girl's idea of a fun time.
- (intransitive) To rule as a tyrant.
- The prince tyrannized over his subjects.
- 1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
- What? will they tyrannize vpon the Church?
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserable
What time I threw the people’s suffrages
On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.
- 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 24:
- […] lest som should perswade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments of lerned mens discouragement at this your order, are meer flourishes, and not reall, I could recount what I have seen and heard in other Countries, where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes […]
- 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 10, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, →OCLC:
- Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext to tyrannize where it can be done with impunity, for only good and wise men are content with the respect that will bear discussion.
- 2020, Michael Pompeo, “Communist China and the Free World’s Future”, in U. S. Department of State[3]:
- General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize inside and outside of China forever, unless we allow it.
Translations edit
oppress someone
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