as in dictator
a person who uses power or authority in a cruel, unjust, or harmful way
a Latin-American strongman who basically treated his nation's coffers as his personal bank account
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Recent Examples of strongman
The new Administration is dismantling the federal government, allying itself with strongmen, and implementing a new McCarthyism.
—
Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025
European leaders had tried to guide Trump in the days before Zelenskyy arrived, but Trump is wedded to his demented dream of a troika of strongmen — himself, Putin and Xi Jinping — astride the world.
—Maureen Dowd, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2025
The international order forged after World War II is imploding, squeezed on all sides by the return of strongmen, nationalism and spheres of influence — with President Trump leading the charge.
—Zachary Basu, Axios, 28 Feb. 2025
The senior American diplomat slipped quietly into Belarus, a police state run by a strongman reviled for decades in the West, traveling by car across the border for meetings with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko and the head of his KGB security apparatus.
—Tomas Dapkus, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for strongman
Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025
European leaders had tried to guide Trump in the days before Zelenskyy arrived, but Trump is wedded to his demented dream of a troika of strongmen — himself, Putin and Xi Jinping — astride the world.
—Maureen Dowd, The Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2025
The international order forged after World War II is imploding, squeezed on all sides by the return of strongmen, nationalism and spheres of influence — with President Trump leading the charge.
—Zachary Basu, Axios, 28 Feb. 2025
The senior American diplomat slipped quietly into Belarus, a police state run by a strongman reviled for decades in the West, traveling by car across the border for meetings with President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko and the head of his KGB security apparatus.
—Tomas Dapkus, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for strongman
Cite this Entry
“Strongman.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/strongman. Accessed 21 Apr. 2025.
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