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 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, OCLC 837836359, (please specify the page):

     What? will they tyrannize vpon the Church?

   • c. 1588–1593, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     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; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], OCLC 879551664, page 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 […]

   • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, chapter 10, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Peter Edes for Thomas and Andrews, […], published 1792, OCLC 5625662194:

     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.

   • 2020, Michael Pompeo, “Communist China and the Free World’s Future”, in U. S. Department of State‎:

     General Secretary Xi is not destined to tyrannize inside and outside of China forever, unless we allow it.