tyrannous

English

Etymology

New Latin from Latin tyrannus (“tyrant”).

Adjective

tyrannous (comparative more tyrannous, superlative most tyrannous)

  1. Tyrannical, despotic or oppressive.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 3, Canto 12, p. 582,
      […] that Elfe,
      That man and beast with powre imperious
      Subdeweth to his kingdome tyrannous:
    • c. 1604, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act III, Scene 3,
      Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne
      To tyrannous hate!
    • 1797, Edmund Burke, “Remarks on the Policy of the Allies with Respect to France” in Three Memorials on French Affairs, London: F. & C. Rivington, p. 193,
      It is extraordinary that as the wicked arts of this regicide and tyrannous faction increase in number, variety, and atrocity, the desire of punishing them becomes more and more faint […]
    • 1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Soothsay” in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis & White, pp. 269-270,
      The affinities have strongest part
      In youth, and draw men heart to heart:
      As life wears on and finds no rest,
      The individual in each breast
      Is tyrannous to sunder them.
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