tyrannous
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin tyrannus (“tyrant”) + -ous.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
tyrannous (comparative more tyrannous, superlative most tyrannous)
- Tyrannical, despotic or oppressive.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 582:
- […] that Elfe,
That man and beast with powre imperious
Subdeweth to his kingdome tyrannous:
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
- Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
To tyrannous hate!
- 1797, Edmund Burke, “Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with Respect to France”, in Three Memorials on French Affairs[1], London: F. & C. Rivington, page 193:
- It is extraordinary that as the wicked arts of this regicide and tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire of punishing them becomes more and more faint […]
- 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Soothsay” in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis & White, pp. 269-270,[2]
- The affinities have strongest part
In youth, and draw men heart to heart:
As life wears on and finds no rest,
The individual in each breast
Is tyrannous to sunder them.
- The affinities have strongest part