Definition of "tyrant"

To proue him Tyrant, this reason may suffice, That Henry liueth still.

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii], line 71

The reappearance of tyranny had many reasons... one of the main causes was the development of antagonism between rich and poor; tyrants came to power exploiting a social and political imbalance within the state.

1980, Michel Austin et al., Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece, section 142

Ancient Greek tyrannies appeared once more in great numbers with the breakdown of the polis in the period from the fourth to the second centuries [BC]. These later tyrannies tended to rely on a more narrow class base and to use a brutal military rule, and thus writers could use the words tyrant and tyranny, with their modern connotations of evil and cruelty, to describe them accurately.

1996, Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny, from Plato to Arendt, section 4

Cassius... set tyrants over all Syria.

1737, William Whiston translating Josephus, History of the Jewish Wars, I xii §2

Tyrannes...be but Gods scourges which he will cast into the fyre when he hath done with them.

1587, Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion, translating Philippe De Mornay, XII 196

I am the Sonne of Marcus Cato, hoe.A Foe to Tyrants, and my Countries Friend.

1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iv], line 5

Here is a Proclamation for a Prince: that proclaims him in whoſe name it is emitted [James II of England], to be the greateſt Tyrant that ever lived in the world, and their Revolt who have diſowned him to be the juſteſt that ever was.

1744, Alexander Shiels [i.e., Alexander Shields], “Period VI. Containing the Testimony through the Continued Tract of the Present Deformation, from the Year 1660 to this Day.”, in A Hind Let Loose: Or, An Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland, for the Interest of Christ; with the True State thereof in All Its Periods: [...], Edinburgh: Reprinted by R. Drummond and Company, and sold by William Gray bookbinder in the Grassmarket, and several others, &c., pages 167–168

They [viz., the Framers of the American Constitution] held England to be the freest and best-governed country in the world, but were resolved to avoid the weak points which had enabled King George III. to play the tyrant, and which rendered English liberty, as they thought, far inferior to that which the constitutions of their own States secured.

1888, James Bryce, The American Commonweath, I iv 42

A plague vpon the Tyrant that I serue

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii], line 161

[…] a sad tyrant, as my friends the Democrats sometimes are.

1817, Mary Mitford in Alfred L'Estrange, The life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870), II i 2

I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt.

1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], :]

A pike (called the tyranne of fishes).

1528, Thomas Paynell translating Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni

O dissembling Curtesie! How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?

1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i], line 85

Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.

1847, A. Helps, Friends in Council, I viii 132

The Tyrant... The courage of this little Bird is singular.

1731, Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, I 55

The lesser tyrants (Tyrannulae) 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.

c. 1841, Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia, XXI 415 2

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.

1895, Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds

He was most tirant & cruell of all emperours.

c. 1530, John Rastell, Pastyme of People

Thus must I from the smoake into the smother,From tyrant Duke, vnto a tyrant Brother.

c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], line 278

...a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies.

1775, Abigail Adams, letter in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution (1876), 124

Let thy judgment be king, but not tyrant over it

a. 1661, Thomas Fuller, Of Fancy