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despot

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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
  • despots = a ruler with absolute power
  • ...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'
  • despots = rulers with absolute power — especially those who abuses that power
  • 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
  • despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
  • And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.
    Kahlil Gibran  --  The Prophet
  • despot = a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
  • 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
  • despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power
  • They think school's a despotic system of indoctrination, designed to crush the spirit and stamp out creativity.
    Darren Shan  --  A Vampire's Assistant
  • despotic = typical of a ruler who abuses absolute power
  • ...under absolute Despotism,
    Thomas Jefferson et al.  --  The Declaration of Independence
  • despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
  • 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
  • despot = a ruler with absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
  • 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
  • despotism = a system of government with a ruler who has absolute power — especially one who abuses that power
  • 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

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