From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdespotdes‧pot /ˈdespɒt, -ət $ ˈdespət, -ɑːt/ noun [countable] PGOCRUELsomeone, especially a ruler, who uses power in a cruel and unfair way SYN tyrant —despotic /deˈspɒtɪk $ -ˈspɑː-/ adjective —despotically /-kli/ adverb
Examples from the Corpus
despot• Unluckily our moral life is too complex for any single moral principle to be a despot over all the others.• Unarguably, the father in the poem is a despot, and the daughter is humiliated.• The president is finely educated and is capable of talking like a professor and behaving like a despot.• The world can not go to war every time a despot grabs a piece of land.• Qin was a cruel despot who burned books and had scholars put to death.• He was seen as an enlightened despot pursuing liberal policies in the face of dogmatic reaction from priests and landlords.• Woman is not the passive chattel that the tussles of despots, described in the last chapter, have implied.• In totalitarian states absolute control of information and the armed forces is the key to the survival of the despot.Origin despot (1500-1600) Old French despote, from Greek despotes “lord” 