Ty'rant1, n.
Ty'rant, n. [O. Eng. tyran, O. Fr. tiran, tirant, N. Fr. tyran, Pr. tyran, tiran, Sp. tirano, Pg. tyrano, It. tiranno, Lat. tyrannus, Gr. τύραννος, originally an absolute sovereign, but afterward a severe or cruel ruler, properly Doric for κοίρανος, from κῦρος, κύριος, a lord, master.]
Sense 1. An absolute ruler; a sovereign unrestrained by law or constitution.
Sense 2. A monarch, or other ruler or master, who uses power to oppress his subjects; a person who exercises unlawful authority, or lawful authority in an unlawful manner; one who by taxation, injustice, or cruel punishment, or the demand of unreasonable services, imposes burdens and hardships on those under his control, which law and humanity do not authorize, or which the purposes of government do not require; a despotic ruler; a cruel master; an oppressor.
Love, to a yielding heart, is a king; to a resisting heart, is a tyrant. Sidney.
Sense 3. (Ornith.) A passerine bird of the family Muscicapidæ, or fly-catchers, and genus Tyrannus;—called also tyrant-shrike, or tyrant fly-catcher. Baird.
☞ “Free constitutions [in Greece] having superseded the old hereditary sovereignties (βασιλεῖαι), all who obtained absolute power in a state were called τύραννοι, tyrants, usurpers; so that the term rather regards the way in which power was gained, than how it was exercised; as, e. g., it was applied to the mild Pisistratus, but not to the despotic kings of Persia: however, as usurpation usually leads to violence, the word soon came to imply reproach, and was then used like our tyrant or despot.” Liddell & Scott.