Tyrant

sb. Forms: α. 4 tyraun, 4–7 tyran, -anne, 5–7 tyrane, 6 tiran, -anne, 7 tyrann, Sc. 4 terane, 5–6 tirrane, 6 tirane, tyrran(ne; β. 3–5 (6 Sc.) tir-, tyrand, 4–5 -ande, tir-, tyraund, terand (also 6 Sc.), 5, 6 Sc. tirr-, tyrrand, (7 tyrennd); γ. 3 pl. tyraunz, 3–7 tirant, 4–5 terant, -aunt, 4–6 tir-, tyraunt, -e, (4 tir-, 5 terawnte, 6 Sc. tirrant), 6 tyrante, 5– tyrant. [a. OF. tyrant (12th c.), tiran (13th c.), F. tyran (14th c.) = Prov. tiran, Cat. tira, Sp. tirano, Pg. tyranno, It. tiranno, a. L. tyrannus, Gr. τύραννος.

  The spelling with final t arose in OF. from association of the ending with that of present participles; cf. suffragant as variant of suffragan.]

  1.  One who seizes upon the sovereign power in a state without legal right; an absolute ruler; a usurper. (Chiefly in reference to ancient rulers, and in early use with suggestion of sense 3.)

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 21001 (Cott.). Vnder a tirand hight egeas Bonden on a rod he was.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 51. A bastard no kyngdom suld hald Bot if þat he it wan … Of tirant or of Sarazin.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., III. pr. v. 59 (Camb. MS.). A tyraunt þat was kyng of sysile.

c. 1470.  Harding, Chron., XXXI. ii. Eche Tyraunt was a Conqueroure.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VI. ix. 197. Sum … Sald and betrasit thar natiue realm and land And tharin brocht a michty tirrand strang.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 39. The thirtie tyrannes had invaded & usurped the governance.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. iii. 71. To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still.

1622.  Bacon, Hen. VII., 1. Richard the third of that name, King in fact onely, but Tyrant both in Title and Regiment.

1653.  Gataker, Vind. Annot. Jer., 47. He … landed his forces, surprised Syracusa, and drave out the Tyranne.

1763.  J. Brown, Poetry & Mus., vii. 151. This Event happened … thro’ the Authority of the thirty Tyrants.

1821.  Byron, Juan, III. lxxxvi. The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom’s best and bravest friend; That tyrant was Miltiades!

1882.  Gd. Words, 181/1. In the fifth century before Christ, the tyrant Gelon extended its limits to embrace Acradina.

  † 2.  A ruler, governor, prince. Obs.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, xxxii. 10. Princes, þat is,… tirauntis of þis warld.

1382.  Wyclif, Dan. i. 3. The sonys of Yrael, and of the kyngus bloode, and the children of tyrauntis.

c. 1430.  Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 118. The hors … With his bellis and boosis brode of gold, Estate of tirauntis the poraile dothe expresse.

c. 1477.  Caxton, Jason, 38 b. Dyomedes … brought with him xxx. of his tyrants.

1555.  W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, I. vi. 90. The Troglodites … haue their heade ouer them, whome they call Tiraunte.

1609.  Bible (Douay), Dan. iii. 2. The king sent to cal together the nobles, the magistrates, and judges, dukes, and tyrants, and rulers.

1737.  Whiston, Josephus, Hist., I. xii. § 2. Cassius … set tyrants over all Syria.

  3.  A king or ruler who exercises his power in an oppressive, unjust, or cruel manner; a despot.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 7689. To hom þat wolde is wille do debonere he was & milde & to hom þat wiþsede strong tirant [v.r. tyraund].

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, ii. (Paulus), 647. Nero, þat tyran kene. Ibid., 796. Þe tyrand tuk on hand For to byrne þe gret cite Of rome.

1390.  Gower, Conf., III. 201. Evere yit it hath so stonde, That god a tirant overladde.

1422.  trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 181. Yf y [Cæsar] were a tyraunte, thow sholdyst Say no more so.

c. 1471.  Fortescue, Wks. (1869), 453. Whan a Kyng rulith his Realme onely to his own profytt, and not to the good of his Subgetts, he ys a Tyraunte.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 262 b. Sylla … afterwarde weaxed a cruell tyranne.

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, xii. (1592), 172. Tyrannes … be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fire when he hath done with them.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., V. iv. 5. A Foe to Tyrants, and my Countries Friend.

1617.  Bp. Hall, Quo Vadis, § 18. Their late Patron … was, after his death, in their Pulpits proclaimed Tyran, and worse.

1727.  Gay, Fables, I. xlix. 5. Do not tyrants … Think men were born for slaves to kings?

1831.  Sir J. Sinclair, Corr., II. 145. When Bonaparte put the Duke d’Enghien to death, all Paris felt so much horror … that the throne of the tyrant trembled under him.

1875.  Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvi. 350. The king had never been a tyrant.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. iv. 42. They … were resolved to avoid the weak points which had enabled George III. to play the tyrant.

  4.  Any one who exercises power or authority oppressively, despotically, or cruelly; one who treats those under his control tyrannically.

c. 1290.  Beket, 750, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 128. Ore louerd helpe nouþe seint thomas … A-mong so manie tyraunz for-to come þat weren alle is fon. Ibid., 753. In þe castel sat þe motinge of þis tyraunz ech-on.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Psalter, ii. 9. Þou sall noght be tyraunt til þaim.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 209. Þe abbotes … for grete richesse beeþ proude, and bycomeþ tyrauntz.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 166. A plague vpon the Tyrant that I serue.

1750.  Gray, Elegy, 58. Some village Hampden, that … The little Tyrant of his fields withstood.

1792.  in Gentl. Mag., Dec., 1199/1. A man of republican levelling principles, who was the greatest of tyrants to his wife and family.

1817.  Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), II. i. 2. A sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvii. It was William who defended him against a tyrant at the school where they were.

1908.  R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, iv. The marriage had not proved a happy one…. He had been a domestic tyrant.

  † b.  By extension: Any one who acts in a cruel, violent, or wicked manner; a ruffian, desperado; a villain. Hence as a term of reproach. Obs.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, i. (Petrus), 289. He folawit … Agan þat Terane [Simon Magus] for to stryfe. Ibid., xix. (Cristofere), 528. His tyranis furth can ryn, & did as he þaim bad in haste.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. I. 199. Attache þo tyrauntz [1393, tyrauns] … And fettereth fast falsenesse … And gurdeth of gyles hed.

c. 1430.  Chev. Assigne, 84. Tytlye tyrauntes tweyne … by þe byddynge of matabryne a-non þey her hente.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxxii. 227. Fals tiraunte [Judas], for þi tratoury Þu art worþi to be hanged.

1457.  Harding, Chron., in Eng. Hist. Rev., Oct. (1912), 745. Your Iustyse of pese darr nought reply Suche tyrauntes that perteyne to any lorde.

1526.  Tindale, 1 Tim. i. 13. I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt.

1561.  S. Wythers, trans. Calvin’s Treat. Relics, H vij b. The tirauntes that stoned him [Stephen].

a. 1578.  Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. xix. 86. He suburnit sum blody tyrantis to ly in ane quyit place … awaitand for the slaughter.

  c.  fig. Anything of which the action is likened to that of a tyrannical ruler.

1508.  Dunbar, Lament Makaris, 25. That strang vnmercifull tyrand [i.e., Death].

1528.  Paynel, Salerne’s Regim., O j. A pike (called the tyranne of fishes).

1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Oct., 98. Lordly loue is such a Tyranne fell.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., I. i. 84. O dissembling Curtesie! How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?

1757.  Gray, Bard, 130. Horrour, Tyrant of the throbbing breast.

1796.  Eliza Hamilton, Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811), I. 11. When the tyrant pain had a little loosened the fetters of her power.

1847.  Helps, Friends in C., I. viii. 132. Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.

  5.  Ornith. Any bird of the family Tyrannidæ; esp. any of several species of the genus Tyrannus (as T. carolinensis, the KING-BIRD or bee-martin), noted for attacking and driving off any other bird approaching its nesting place. Also called tyrant-bird, tyrant-flycatcher.

1730.  Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 433. Muscicapa coronâ rubrâ, the Tyrant…. He puts to Flight all Birds, both great and small, that come near his Station.

1731.  M. Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, I. 55. The Tyrant…. The courage of this little Bird is singular.

a. 1841.  Swainson, in Penny Cycl., XXI. 415/2. The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulæ) are spread over the whole of America, where they represent true flycatcher…. The tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation.

1869.  Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Rept. & Birds (1870), 538. The Tyrants (Tyrannus) owe their name to their courageous, audacious, and quarrelsome character.

1895.  Newton, Dict. Birds, Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to … the King bird…, but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown … as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.

  6.  attrib. or as adj. That is a tyrant, tyrannical, tyrannous; also, characteristic of a tyrant.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8005. Milce nas þer mid him [King William] non … Ac as a tirant [v.r. terant] tormentor in speche & ek in dede.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xvii. (Martha), 290. A tyrand man in vord & vark.

1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 316. That tirant raviner [Tereus], Whan that sche was in his pouer … Foryat he was a wedded man. Ibid., III. 148. Cirus the king tirant sche tok.

1456.  Sir G. Haye, Law Arms (S.T.S.), 32. Wikkit tyrane Emperouris and princis.

1572.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., II. 140. Thair inordinat proceidingis, tirrant and tressonable attemptattis.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., III. iii. 74 b. Sundry emperors tirants.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., I. i. 300. Thus must I from the smoake into the smother, From tyrant Duke, vnto a tyrant Brother.

1624.  Quarles, Job Militant, xv. 26. Hidden roots, wherewith they might appease Their Tyran’-stomakes.

1691.  Swift, Athenian Soc., x. Wks. 1755, IV. I. 236. The deluding muse … changes all to beauty, and the praise Of that proud tyrant sex of hers.

1730–46.  Thomson, Autumn, 222. When tyrant custom had not shackled man.

1775.  Abigail Adams, Fam. Lett. (1876), 124. A reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies.

1810.  Crabbe, Borough, xxiv. 287. The tyrant-boy, whose sway All hearts acknowledge.

1835.  Lytton, Rienzi, I. i. The excuse for these tyrant hypocrites to lift up their hands.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xxxi. (1852), 514. Those basest few who thought to win The tyrant monster’s favour.

  † b.  as adj. in predicate. Obs. rare.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 8615. So cruel ne so tirant ich wene no mon ne say.

1422.  trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 212. A man his … Tyraunt & Slow as a bere.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 86. He is pruddere, þe more teraunt, þe more ouerledere, þe more cursyd lyvere, for his good.

1529.  Rastell, Pastyme (1811), 19. He was most tirant and cruell of all emperours.

  7.  attrib. and Comb., as tyrant-air, -craft, -killing, -kind, -murder, period; tyrant-hater, -killer, -queller, -slayer, -tamer; tyrant-hating, -quelling, -ridden, -scourging adjs.; tyrant-like adj. and adv.; tyrant-bird: see sense 5; tyrant-chat (see quot.); tyrant-fish, a West Indian cutlass-fish, Evoxymetopon tæniatus (Cent. Dict. Supp., 1909); tyrant-flycatcher, tyrant-shrike, species of Tyrannus, resembling, and formerly confused with, the Muscicapidæ and Laniidæ; tyrant-wren: see quot. for tyrant-chat.

1746.  Lockman, To 1st Promotor of Cambrick & Tea Bills, 29. [He] Lords it, with *tyrant-airs, o’er beast and man.

1888.  Cassell’s Encycl. Dict., *Tyrant-bird.

1892.  W. H. Hudson, Natur. La Plata, 35. Puma … following and harassing it [the jaguar] as a tyrant-bird harasses an eagle or hawk.

1885.  Stand. Nat. Hist., IV. 468. We may now style various birds *tyrant-chats, tyrant-wrens, tyrant-flycatchers, etc. according to the more or less obvious resemblance they may have to the true (oscinine) chats, wrens, or flycatchers.

1812.  Crabbe, Tales, xiv. 349. With *tyrant-craft, he then was still and calm.

1783.  Latham, Synopsis Birds, III. 357. *Tyrant Fl[ycatcher]. Size of the Red-backed Shrike, or a trifle bigger…. Inhabits Cayenne.

1839.  Darwin, Voy. Nat., xi. (1873), 237. Occasionally the plaintive note of a white-tufted tyrant-fly catcher … may be heard.

1879.  E. P. Wright, Anim. Life, 243. The Tyrant Fly-catcher (Tyrannus intrepidus) is one of the migratory visitors of the United States, and often bears the name of ‘King,’ as well as ‘Tyrant.’

1819.  Byron, Juan, Ded. x. He [Milton] closed the *tyrant-hater he begun.

1866.  M. C. Tyler, Glimpses Eng. (1898), 146. Two centuries of *tyrant-hating Russells.

a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, II. (1622), 128. Killing many guiltlesse persons, either for affinitie to the tyrant, or enmitie to the *tyrant-killers.

1649.  Canne, Gold. Rule, 36. Those monuments of tyrant-killers by antiquity were so honored.

1648.  Milton, Tenure Kings (1650), 20. Among the Jews this practice of *tyrant-killing was not unusual.

1726.  Pope, Odyss., XVIII. 97. Echetus … A tyrant, fiercest of the *tyrant-kind.

1532.  Becon, Pomander of Prayer (1578), 38. Forgeuing them, & praying for them whiche most *tyrauntlike handled thee.

1571.  Golding, Calvin on Ps. xlv. 7. Salomon reigneth not tyrantlike, as many Kynges do.

1629.  H. Burton, Truth’s Triumph, 21. The Prince of darkenesse, who tyrant-like ruleth in the children of disobedience.

1894.  trans. Pastor’s Hist. Popes, IV. II. v. 290. This crime was a *tyrant-murder of the ancient type.

1898.  Q. Rev., July, 106. Certain of the Mycenaean types … outlived the *Tyrant period.

1542.  Udall, Erasm. Apoph., I. 115 b. Harmodius & Aristogiton had been *tyrannequellers.

1819.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. i. 272. Golden spears With *tyrant-quelling myrtle overtwined.

1848.  Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 6. The *tyrant-ridden serf.

1591.  Sylvester, Ivry, 385. Those king-correcting, *Tyrant-scourging Braves.

1809.  Shaw, Gen. Zool., VII. 304. *Tyrant Shrike … usually measuring about eight inches in length.

1826.  Stephens, ibid., XIII. II. 133. Tyrant-Shrike … these inhabit the American continent: they … are said to defend their young against the attacks of Eagles.

1692.  Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., ii. M.’s Wks. (1847), 354/1. The same emperour honoured the memory of Thraseas, and Helvidius [etc.], who all were *tyrant-slayers.

1910.  P. Gardner, in Encycl. Brit., XII. 480/1. The tyrant-slayers, Harmodius and Aristogiton.

1605.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. IV. 704. Thy gracious God, the glorious *Tyrant-tamer.

1613.  Heywood, Silver Age, III. i. Nor will we cease till we haue purchas’d vs The name of Tyrant-tamer through the world.

  Hence Tyrant v. intr., to play the tyrant, to tyrannize (also with it); whence Tyranting († tyranning) vbl. sb.; Tyrantess, a female tyrant, a tyranness.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. vii. 1. Great God of love,… What glorie, or what guerdon hast thou found In feeble Ladies tyranning so sore?

1622.  in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 177. Hee persisted in his tyraninge.

a. 1661.  Fuller, Worthies, Bucks. (1662), I. 134. This encouraged the Irish Grandees (their O’s and Mac’s) to Rant and Tyrant it in their respective seignieuries.

1857.  Bellevue (NE) Gaz., 19 Feb., 2/4. Now is it not too bad that a people who have struggled so hard for independence, as have those of our republic, should be subjected to the despotic sway of such an inveterate tyrantess as this Dame [fashion] has proved herself to be?

1890.  E. L. Arnold, Phra, iv. I was sorry for the tyrantess.