| 释义 |
tyrant, n.|ˈtaɪərənt|
Forms: α. 4 tyraun, 4–7 tyran, -anne, 5–7 tyrane, 6 tiran, -anne, 7 tyrann, Sc. 4 terane, 5–6 tirrane, 6 tirane, tyrran(ne; β. 3–5 (6 Sc.) tir-, tyrand, 4–5 -ande, tir-, tyraund, terand (also 6 Sc.), 5, 6 Sc. tirr-, tyrrand, (7 tyrannd); γ. 3 pl. tyraunz, 3–7 tirant, 4–5 terant, -aunt, 4–6 tir-, tyraunt, -e, (4 tir-, 5 terawnte, 6 Sc. tirrant), 6 tyrante, 5– tyrant.
[a. OF. tyrant (12th c.), tiran (13th c.), F. tyran (14th c.) = Prov. tiran, Cat. tira, Sp. tirano, Pg. tyranno, It. tiranno, a. L. tyrannus, Gr. τύραννος.
The spelling with final t arose in OF. from association of the ending with that of present participles; cf. suffragant as variant of suffragan.]
1. One who seizes upon the sovereign power in a state without legal right; an absolute ruler; a usurper. (Chiefly in reference to ancient rulers, and in early use with suggestion of sense 3.)
a1300Cursor M. 21001 (Cott.) Vnder a tirand hight egeas Bonden on a rod he was. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 51 A bastard no kyngdom suld hald Bot if þat he it wan..Of tirant or of Sarazin. c1374Chaucer Boeth. iii. pr. v. 59 (Camb. MS.) A tyraunt þat was kyng of sysile. c1470Harding Chron. xxxi. ii, Eche Tyraunt was a Conqueroure. 1513Douglas æneis vi. ix. 197 Sum..Sald and betrasit thar natiue realm and land And tharin brocht a michty tirrand strang. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 39 The thirtie tyrannes had invaded & usurped the governance. 1593Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, iii. iii. 71 To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still. 1622Bacon Hen. VII, 1 Richard the third of that name, King in fact onely, but Tyrant both in Title and Regiment. 1653Gataker Vind. Annot. Jer. 47 He..landed his forces, surprised Syracusa, and drave out the Tyranne. 1763J. Brown Poetry & Mus. vii. 151 This Event happened..thro' the Authority of the thirty Tyrants. 1821Byron Juan iii. lxxxvi, The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom's best and bravest friend; That tyrant was Miltiades! 1882Gd. Words 181/1 In the fifth century before Christ, the tyrant Gelon extended its limits to embrace Acradina.
†2. A ruler, governor, prince. Obs.
a1340Hampole Psalter xxxii. 10 Princes, þat is,..tirauntis of þis warld. 1382Wyclif Dan. i. 3 The sonys of Yrael, and of the kyngus bloode, and the children of tyrauntis. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 118 The hors..Withe his bellis and boosis brode of gold, Estate of tirauntis the poraile dothe expresse. c1477Caxton Jason 38 b, Dyomedes..brought with him xxx. of his tyrants. 1555W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. vi. 90 The Troglodites..haue their heade ouer them, whome they call Tiraunte. 1609Bible (Douay) Dan. iii. 2 The king sent to cal together the nobles, the magistrates, and judges, dukes, and tyrants, and rulers. 1737Whiston Josephus, Hist. i. xii. §2 Cassius..set tyrants over all Syria.
3. A king or ruler who exercises his power in an oppressive, unjust, or cruel manner; a despot.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 7689 To hom þat wolde is wille do debonere he was & milde & to hom þat wiþsede strong tirant [v.r. tyraund]. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 647 Nero, þat tyran kene. Ibid. 796 Þe tyrand tuk on hand For to byrne þe gret cite Of rome. 1390Gower Conf. III. 201 Evere yit it hath so stonde, That god a tirant overladde. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 181 Yf y [Cæsar] were a tyraunte, thow sholdyst Say no more so. c1471Fortescue Wks. (1869) 453 Whan a Kyng rulith his Realme onely to his own profytt, and not to the good of his Subgetts, he ys a Tyraunte. 1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. 262 b, Sylla..afterwarde weaxed a cruell tyranne. 1587Golding De Mornay xii. (1592) 172 Tyrannes..be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fire when he hath done with them. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. v. iv. 5 A Foe to Tyrants, and my Countries Friend. 1617Bp. Hall Quo Vadis §18 Their late Patron..was, after his death, in their Pulpits proclaimed Tyran, and worse. 1727Gay Fables i. xlix. 5 Do not tyrants..Think men were born for slaves to kings? 1831Sir J. Sinclair Corr. II. 145 When Bonaparte put the Duke d'Enghien to death, all Paris felt so much horror..that the throne of the tyrant trembled under him. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xvi. 350 The king had never been a tyrant. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. I. iv. 42 The weak points which had enabled George III to play the tyrant.
4. Any one who exercises power or authority oppressively, despotically, or cruelly; one who treats those under his control tyrannically.
c1290Beket 750 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 128 Ore louerd helpe nouþe seint thomas..A-mong so manie tyraunz for-to come þat weren alle is fon. Ibid. 753 In þe castel sat þe motinge of þis tyraunz ech-on. a1340Hampole Psalter ii. 9 Þou sall noght be tyraunt til þaim. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 209 Þe abbotes..for grete richesse beeþ proude, and bycomeþ tyrauntz. 1610Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 166 A plague vpon the Tyrant that I serue. 1750Gray Elegy 58 Some village Hampden, that..The little Tyrant of his fields withstood. 1792in Gentl. Mag. Dec. 1199/1 A man of republican levelling principles, who was the greatest of tyrants to his wife and family. 1817Miss Mitford in L'Estrange Life (1870) II. i. 2 A sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair lxvii, It was William who defended him against a tyrant at the school where they were. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert iv, The marriage had not proved a happy one... He had been a domestic tyrant.
†b. By extension: Any one who acts in a cruel, violent, or wicked manner; a ruffian, desperado; a villain. Hence as a term of reproach. Obs.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints i. (Petrus) 289 He folawit..Agan þat Terane [Simon Magus] for to stryfe. Ibid. xix. (Cristofere) 528 His tyranis furth can ryn, & did as he þaim bad in haste. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. i. 199 Attache þo tyrauntz [1393, tyrauns]..And fettereth fast falsenesse.. And gurdeth of gyles hed. c1430Chev. Assigne 84 Tytlye tyrauntes tweyne..by þe byddynge of matabryne a-non þey her hente. c1440York Myst. xxxii. 227 Fals tiraunte [Judas], for þi tratoury Þu art worþi to be hanged. 1457Harding Chron. in Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. (1912) 745 Your Iustyse of pese darr nought reply Suche tyrauntes that perteyne to any lorde. 1526Tindale 1 Tim. i. 13, I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt. 1561S. Wythers tr. Calvin's Treat. Relics H vij b, The tirauntes that stoned him [Stephen]. a1578Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. xix. 86 He suburnit sum blody tyrantis to ly in ane quyit place..awaitand for the slaughter.
c. fig. Anything of which the action is likened to that of a tyrannical ruler.
1508Dunbar Lament Makaris 25 That strang vnmercifull tyrand [i.e. Death]. 1528Paynel Salerne's Regim. O j, A pike (called the tyranne of fishes). 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. Oct. 98 Lordly loue is such a Tyranne fell. 1611Shakes. Cymb. i. i. 84 O dissembling Curtesie! How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds? 1757Gray Bard 130 Horrour, Tyrant of the throbbing breast. 1796E. Hamilton Lett. Hindoo Rajah (1811) I. 11 When the tyrant pain had a little loosened the fetters of her power. 1847Helps Friends in C. i. viii. 132 Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.
5. Ornith. Any bird of the family Tyrannidæ; esp. any of several species of the genus Tyrannus (as T. carolinensis, the king-bird or bee-martin), noted for attacking and driving off any other bird approaching its nesting place. Also called tyrant-bird, tyrant-flycatcher.
1730Mortimer in Phil. Trans. XXXVI. 433 Muscicapa coronâ rubrâ, the Tyrant... He puts to Flight all Birds, both great and small, that come near his Station. 1731M. Catesby Nat. Hist. Carolina I. 55 The Tyrant... The courage of this little Bird is singular. a1841Swainson in Penny Cycl. XXI. 415/2 The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulæ) are spread over the whole of America, where they represent the true flycatcher... The tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation. 1869Gillmore tr. Figuier's Rept. & Birds (1870) 538 The Tyrants (Tyrannus) owe their name to their courageous, audacious, and quarrelsome character. 1895Newton Dict. Birds, Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to..the King-bird.., but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown..as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.
6. attrib. or as adj. That is a tyrant, tyrannical, tyrannous; also, characteristic of a tyrant.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8005 Milce nas þer mid him [King William] non..Ac as a tirant [v.r. terant] tormentor in speche & ek in dede. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xvii. (Martha) 290 A tyrand man in vord & vark. 1390Gower Conf. II. 316 That tirant raviner [Tereus], Whan that sche was in his pouer..Foryat he was a wedded man. Ibid. III. 148 Cirus the king tirant sche tok. 1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 32 Wikkit tyrane Emperouris and princis. 1572Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 140 Thair inordinat proceidingis, tirrant and tressonable attemptattis. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. iii. 74 b, Sundry emperors tirants. 1600Shakes. A.Y.L. i. ii. 300 Thus must I from the smoake into the smother, From tyrant Duke, vnto a tyrant Brother. 1624Quarles Job Militant xv. 26 Hidden roots, wherewith they might appease Their Tyran'-stomakes. 1691Swift Athenian Soc. x. Wks. 1755 IV. i. 236 The deluding muse..changes all to beauty, and the praise Of that proud tyrant sex of hers. 1730–46Thomson Autumn 222 When tyrant custom had not shackled man. 1775A. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876) 124 A reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies. 1810Crabbe Borough xxiv. 287 The tyrant-boy, whose sway All hearts acknowledge. 1835Lytton Rienzi i. i, The excuse for these tyrant hypocrites to lift up their hands. 1839Bailey Festus xxxi. (1852) 514 Those basest few who thought to win The tyrant monster's favour.
†b. as adj. in predicate. Obs. rare.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8615 So cruel ne so tirant ich wene no mon ne say. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 212 A man his..Tyraunt & Slow as a bere. c1440Jacob's Well 86 He is pruddere, þe more teraunt, þe more ouerledere, þe more cursyd lyvere, for his good. 1529Rastell Pastyme (1811) 19 He was most tirant and cruell of all emperours.
7. attrib. and Comb., as tyrant-air, tyrant-craft, tyrant-killing, tyrant-kind, tyrant-murder, tyrant period; tyrant-hater, tyrant-killer, tyrant-queller, tyrant-slayer, tyrant-tamer; tyrant-hating, tyrant-quelling, tyrant-ridden, tyrant-scourging adjs.; tyrant-like adj. and adv.; tyrant-bird: see sense 5; tyrant-chat (see quot.); tyrant-fish, a West Indian cutlass-fish, Evoxymetopon tæniatus (Cent. Dict. Suppl., 1909); tyrant-flycatcher, tyrant-shrike, species of Tyrannus, resembling, and formerly confused with, the Muscicapidæ and Laniidæ; tyrant-wren: see quot. for tyrant-chat.
1746Lockman To 1st Promoter of Cambrick & Tea Bills 29 [He] Lords it, with *tyrant-airs, o'er beast and man.
1888Cassell's Encycl. Dict., *Tyrant-bird. 1892W. H. Hudson Natur. La Plata 35 Puma..following and harassing it [the jaguar] as a tyrant-bird harasses an eagle or hawk.
1885Stand Nat. Hist. IV. 468 We may now style various birds *tyrant-chats, tyrant-wrens, tyrant-flycatchers, etc., according to the more or less obvious resemblance they may have to the true (oscinine) chats, wrens, or flycatchers.
1812Crabbe Tales xiv. 349 With *tyrant-craft, he then was still and calm.
1783Latham Synopsis Birds III. 357 *Tyrant Fl[ycatcher]. Size of the Red-backed Shrike, or a trifle bigger... Inhabits Cayenne. 1839Darwin Voy. Nat. xi. (1873) 237 Occasionally the plaintive note of a white-tufted tyrant-fly catcher..may be heard. 1879E. P. Wright Anim. Life 243 The Tyrant Fly-catcher (Tyrannus intrepidus) is one of the migratory visitors of the United States, and often bears the name of ‘King’, as well as ‘Tyrant’.
1819Byron Juan Ded. x, He [Milton] closed the *tyrant-hater he begun.
1866M. C. Tyler Glimpses Eng. (1898) 146 Two centuries of *tyrant-hating Russells.
a1586Sidney Arcadia ii. (1622) 128 Killing many guiltlesse persons, either for affinitie to the tyrant, or enmitie to the *tyrant-killers. 1649Canne Gold. Rule 36 Those monuments of tyrant-killers by antiquity were so honored.
1648Milton Tenure Kings (1650) 20 Among the Jews this practice of *tyrant-killing was not unusual.
1726Pope Odyss. xviii. 97 Echetus..A tyrant, fiercest of the *tyrant-kind.
1532Becon Pomander of Prayer (1578) 38 Forgeuing them, & praying for them whiche most *tyrauntlike handled thee. 1571Golding Calvin on Ps. xlv. 7 Salomon reigneth not tyrantlike, as many Kynges do. 1629H. Burton Truth's Triumph 21 The Prince of darkenesse, who tyrant-like ruleth in the children of disobedience.
1894tr. Pastor's Hist. Popes IV. ii. v. 290 This crime was a *tyrant-murder of the ancient type.
1898Q. Rev. July 106 Certain of the Mycenaean types..outlived the *Tyrant period.
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. i. 115 b, Harmodius & Aristogiton had been *tyrannequellers.
1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. iv. i. 272 Golden spears With *tyrant-quelling myrtle overtwined.
1848A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 6 The *tyrant-ridden serf.
1591Sylvester Ivry 385 Those King-correcting, *Tyrant-scourging Braves.
1809Shaw Gen. Zool. VII. 304 *Tyrant Shrike..usually measuring about eight inches in length. 1826Stephens ibid. XIII. ii. 133 Tyrant-Shrike..these inhabit the American continent: they..are said to defend their young against the attacks of Eagles.
1692Washington tr. Milton's Def. Pop. ii. M.'s Wks. (1847) 354/1 The same emperour honoured the memory of Thraseas, and Helvidius [etc.], who all were *tyrant-slayers. 1910P. Gardner in Encycl. Brit. XII. 480/1 The tyrant-slayers, Harmodius and Aristogiton.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. iv. 704 Thy gracious God, the glorious *Tyrant-tamer. 1613Heywood Silver Age iii. i, Nor will we cease till we haue pruchas'd vs The name of Tyrant-tamer through the world.
Hence ˈtyrant v. intr., to play the tyrant, to tyrannize (also with it); whence ˈtyranting († tyranning) vbl. n.; ˈtyrantess, a female tyrant, a tyranness.
1596Spenser F.Q. iv. vii. 1 Great God of love,..What glorie, or what guerdon hast thou found In feeble Ladies tyranning so sore? 1622in Foster Eng. Factories Ind. (1908) II. 177 Hee persisted in his tyraninge. a1661Fuller Worthies, Bucks. (1662) i. 134 This encouraged the Irish Grandees (their O's and Mac's) to Rant and Tyrant it in their respective seignieuries. 1890E. L. Arnold Phra iv, I was sorry for the tyrantess. |