5 definitions
for dictator
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Dictator \Dic*ta"tor\, n. [L.]
1. One who dictates; one who prescribes rules and maxims
authoritatively for the direction of others. --Locke.
[1913 Webster]
2. One invested with absolute authority; especially, a
magistrate created in times of exigence and distress, and
invested with unlimited power.
[1913 Webster]
Invested with the authority of a dictator, nay, of a
pope, over our language. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 :
dictator
n 1: a speaker who dictates to a secretary or a recording machine
2: a ruler who is unconstrained by law [syn: potentate]
3: a person behaves in an tyrannical manner; "my boss is a
dictator who makes everyone work overtime" [syn: authoritarian]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :
30 Moby Thesaurus words for "dictator":
Simon Legree, absolute monarch, absolute ruler, all-powerful ruler,
arrogator, autarch, authoritarian, authoritative, autocrat, caesar,
commissar, czar, despot, disciplinarian, doctrinaire, driver, duce,
hard master, martinet, oligarch, oppressor, overlord, pharaoh,
slave driver, stern, stickler, strong man, tyrant, usurper,
warlord
From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :
DICTATOR, civil law. A Magistrate at Rome invested with absolute power. His
authority over the lives and fortunes of the citizens was without bounds.
His office continued but for six months. Hist. de la Jur. h.t.; Dig. l, 2,
18; Id. 1, 1, 1.
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) :
DICTATOR, n. The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence of
despotism to the plague of anarchy.
