[a. F. tyrannicide (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. tyrannicīdium: see prec. and -CIDE 2. So Pg. tyrannicidio.] The killing or assassination of a tyrant.
1650. Hobbes, De Corp. Pol., 165. Tyrannicide, that is, the killing of a Tyrant, not onely Lawful, but also Laudable.
1751. Hume, Princ. Mor., II. iii. 29. Tyrannicide or the Assassination of Usurpers and oppressive Princes was highly prais’d in antient Times.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 93. It was in the most patient period of Roman servitude that themes of tyrannicide made the ordinary exercise of boys at school.
1809–10. Coleridge, Friend, I. xv. (1865), 212. It is difficult to conceive a case in which a good man would attempt tyrannicide.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), II. xxiv. 263. Julian the Apostate is the first instance of tyrannicide that is adduced.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iii. 87. Theognis in one place actually advises tyrannicide.
