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Definition
a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power- He was elected as a constitutional president, but quickly became a despot.
despot = a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
- Today's benign dictator is replaced by tomorrow's despot.
- Sensible despots have never confined that precaution to women:George Bernard Shaw -- Pygmalion
- ...peace that spared the despots and absurdly married the U.S. military with the same soldiers who had been the instruments of torture and terror.Rick Bragg -- All Over but the Shoutin'
- In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne,Washington Irving -- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.Kahlil Gibran -- The Prophet
- During his time there had been a rule of 'enlightened despotism,' similar to that in the reign of Louis XIV almost a hundred years earlier.Jostein Gaarder -- Sophie's World
- They think school's a despotic system of indoctrination, designed to crush the spirit and stamp out creativity.Darren Shan -- A Vampire's Assistant
- ...under absolute Despotism,Thomas Jefferson et al. -- The Declaration of Independence
- Rather than cherish that medal, Madame, you should regard it as a symbol of your unwitting complicity with this despot who worked to death and brutalized and eventually exterminated thousands and thousands of African peoples.Alice Walker -- The Color Purple
- In addition, though I had researched the facts of the regime, and events pertaining to Trujillo's thirty-one-year despotism, I sometimes took liberties—by changing dates, by reconstructing events, and by collapsing characters or incidents.Julia Alvarez -- In the Time of the Butterflies
- They created a system of government with checks and balances so that no branch of government would become despotic.Eric Schlosser -- Fast Food Nation
- Luke was appointed to wait upon his bed-ridden master, whose despotic habits were greatly increased by exasperation at his own helplessness.Harriet Jacobs -- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- Like machines, they dumbly moved about the deck, ever conscious that the old man's despot eye was on them.Herman Melville -- Moby Dick
- The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant: the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism.George Orwell -- 1984
- PROKTOPHANTASMIST I tell you, spirits, to your face, I give to spirit-despotism no place; My spirit cannot practise it at all.Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) -- Faust
- Go to Lucas Beaumanoir, and say thou hast renounced thy vow of obedience, and see how long the despotic old man will leave thee in personal freedom.Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe
- Have I mentioned how much I can't stand despotic psychopaths?James Patterson -- Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports
- If my sister Rachel and Mr. William Shakespeare put their heads together to invent an extravagant despot, they couldn't outdo Mobutu.Barbara Kingsolver -- The Poisonwood Bible
- It was upon the cardinal that all the responsibility fell, for one is not a despotic minister without responsibility.Alexandre Dumas -- The Three Musketeers
despots = a ruler with absolute power
despots = rulers with absolute power — especially those who abuses that power
despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
despot = a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power
despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
despot = a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power — especially one who abuses that power