tyrannize

• tyrannise (non-Oxford British spelling)

From Middle French tyranniser

tyrannize (third-person singular simple present tyrannizes, present participle tyrannizing, simple past and past participle tyrannized)

1. (transitive) To oppress (someone).
   • 1929, Edgar Wallace, “The Tyrant of the House” in The Iron Grip, London: George Newnes,

     In truth he was the type of man who is spoilt by the submission of weaker people than himself. There are such men, who must either be tyrannized or be tyrants […]

   • 2001, Breena Clarke, “Roots of Success” (review of On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker by A’Lelia Bundles), Chicago Tribune, 18 February, 2001,

     I spent the first 18 years of my life tyrannized by a red-hot hair-pressing comb. Well, maybe tyrannized is an exaggeration. But covering your ears while hot grease sizzles nearby is not a young girl's idea of a fun time.

2. (intransitive) To rule as a tyrant.

   The prince tyrannized over his subjects.

   • 1594, Christopher Marlowe, Edward II, London: William Jones,

     What? will they tyrannize vpon the Church?

   • c. 1593, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act IV, Scene 3,

     Ah, Rome! Well, well; I made thee miserable

     What time I threw the people’s suffrages

     On him that thus doth tyrannize o’er me.

   • 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica, London, p. 24,

     […] lest som should perswade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments of lerned mens discouragement at this your order, are meer flourishes, and not reall, I could recount what I have seen and heard in other Countries, where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes […]

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part I, Chapter 10, p. 344,

     Parental affection, indeed, in many minds, is but a pretext to tyrannize where it can be done with impunity, for only good and wise men are content with the respect that will bear discussion.