Imperious

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Imperious \Im*pe"ri*ous\, a. [L. imperiosus: cf. F.
     imp['e]rieux. See {Imperial}.]
     1. Commanding; ascendant; imperial; lordly; majestic. [Obs.]
        "A vast and imperious mind." --Tilloison.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              Therefore, great lords, be, as your titles witness,
              Imperious.                            --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Haughly; arrogant; overbearing; as, an imperious tyrant;
        an imperious manner.
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              This imperious man will work us all
              From princes into pages.              --Shak.
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              His bold, contemptuous, and imperious spirit soon
              made him conspicuous.                 --Macaulay.
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     3. Imperative; urgent; compelling.
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              Imperious need, which can not be withstood.
                                                    --Dryden.
  
     Syn: Dictatorial; haughty; domineering; overbearing; lordly;
          tyrannical; despotic; arrogant; imperative;
          authoritative; commanding; pressing.
  
     Usage: {Imperious}, {Lordly}, {Domineering}. One who is
            imperious exercises his authority in a manner highly
            offensive for its spirit and tone; one who is lordly
            assumes a lofty air in order to display his
            importance; one who is domineering gives orders in a
            way to make others feel their inferiority.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  imperious
       adj : able to deal authoritatively with affairs; "dismissed the
             matter with an imperious wave of her hand" [syn: {masterful}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  85 Moby Thesaurus words for "imperious":
     U, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, acute, arbitrary,
     aristocratic, arrogant, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic,
     binding, bossy, clamorous, coactive, compelling, compulsatory,
     compulsive, compulsory, constraining, critical, crucial, crying,
     de rigueur, despotic, dictatorial, domineering, driving, dynastic,
     elitist, exigent, feudal, grinding, heavy-handed, high and mighty,
     high-handed, high-pressure, high-priority, hubristic, imperative,
     imperatorial, imperatorious, imperial, insistent, instant,
     irresistible, kinglike, kingly, lordly, magisterial, magistral,
     majestic, mandatory, masterful, monarchal, monarchial, monarchic,
     monocratic, must, necessary, obligatory, oppressive, overbearing,
     overruling, peremptory, pivotal, pressing, princelike, princely,
     purple, queenlike, queenly, regal, repressive, required,
     restraining, royal, severe, sovereign, strict, stringent,
     suppressive, tyrannical, tyrannous, urgent