Traitor vs Tyrant - What's the difference?
traitor | tyrant |
One who violates his allegiance and betrays his/her country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place intrusted to his defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; also, one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country.
Hence, one who betrays any confidence or trust.
(historic, ancient Greece) A usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.
* (Robert Mannyng), , 51:
* , III v 59:
* , III iii 71:
* 1980 , Michel Austin & al., Economic and Social History of Ancient Greece , 142:
* 1996 , Roger Boesche, Theories of Tyranny, from Plato to Arendt , 4:
(obsolete) Any monarch or governor.
* Richard Rolle, Psalter , XXXII 10:
* 1382 , (w, Wycliffe's Bible), I 3:
* 1737 , William Whiston translating (Josephus), (History of the Jewish Wars) , I xii §2:
A despot; a ruler who governs unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
* 1297 , , Chronicle , 7689:
* John Fortescue, Works , 453:
* 1587 , Philip Sidney and Arthur Golding, A woorke concerning the trewnesse of the christian religion , translating Philippe De Mornay, XII 196:
* , V iv 5:
* 1888 , James Bryce, The American Commonweath , I iv 42:
(by extension) Any person who abuses the power of position or office to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
* in the South-English Legendary (MS Laud 108), I 128:
* (William Shakespeare), (The Tempest) , II ii 161:
* 1817 , Mary Mitford in Alfred L'Estrange, The life of Mary Russell Mitford (1870), II i 2
(by extension) A villain; a person or thing who uses strength or violence to treat others unjustly, cruelly, or harshly.
* 1377 , William Langland, (Piers Plowman) , I 199:
* William Dunbar, Poems , 95:
* 1526 , (w, Tyndale's Bible), I 13:
* 1528 , Thomas Paynell translating Arnaldus de Villa Nova in Joannes de Mediolano, Regimen Sanitatis Salerni :
* (William Shakespeare), (The Tragedie of Cymbeline) , I i 85:
* 1847 , A. Helps, Friends in Council , I viii 132:
The tyrant birds, members of the family , which often fight or drive off other birds which approach their nests.
* 1731 , Mark Catesby, The natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands , I 55:
* Swainson, Penny Cyclopaedia , XXI 415 2:
* 1895 , Alfred Newton, A Dictionary of Birds :
(uncommon) Tyrannical, tyrannous; like, characteristic of, or in the manner of a tyrant.
* 1297 , Robert of Gloucester, Chronicles , 8005:
* John Rastell, Pastyme of People
* (William Shakespeare), (As you Like it) , I ii 278:
* 1775 , Abigail Adams, letter in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams, during the Revolution (1876), 124:
As nouns the difference between traitor and tyrant
is that traitor is traitor while tyrant is (historic|ancient greece) a usurper; one who gains power and rules extralegally, distinguished from kings elevated by election or succession.As an adjective tyrant is
(uncommon) tyrannical, tyrannous; like, characteristic of, or in the manner of a tyrant.As a verb tyrant is
(obsolete) to act like a tyrant; to be tyrannical.traitor
English
Alternative forms
* traitour (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
*(one who betrays a confidence or trust) betrayer, finkSee also
* Benedict Arnold * Quisling * Judastyrant
English
(wikipedia tyrant) (Tyrant flycatcher) (Tyrannidae)Noun
(en noun)- A bastard no kyngdom]] suld hald Bot if he it wan... Of tirant or of [[Saracen, Sarazin.
- A tyraunt þat]] was kyng of [[Sicily, sysile.
- To proue]] him Tyrant , this reason may suffice, That Henry [[liveth, liueth still.
- The reappearance of tyranny [in the 4th century BC] had many reasons... one of the main causes was the development of antagonism between rich and poor; tyrants came to power exploiting a social and political imbalance within the state.
- Ancient Greek tyrannies appeared once more in great numbers with the breakdown of the polis in the period from the fourth to the second centuries
[ BC] . These later tyrannies tended to rely on a more narrow class base and to use a brutal military rule, and thus writers could use the words tyrant'' and ''tyranny , with their modern connotations of evil and cruelty, to describe them accurately.
- Princes, þat]] is,... tirauntis of [[world, warld.
- The sonys]] of Yrael, and of the [[king's, kyngus bloode, and the children of tyrauntis .
- Cassius... set tyrants over all Syria.
- To hom]] [[withsaid, wiþsede strong tirant & wilde.
- Whan]] a Kyng rulith his Realme onely to his own profytt, and not to the good of his Subgetts, he [[is, ys a Tyraunte .
- Tyrannes ...be but Gods]] scourges which he will cast into the [[fire, fyre when he hath done with them.
- I am the Sonne]] of Marcus Cato, hoe.
A Foe to Tyrants , and my [[country's, Countries Friend.
- They
[ to play the tyrant , and which rendered English liberty, as they thought, far inferior to that which the constitutions of their own States secured.
- Ore]] louerd helpe weren alle is [[few, fon!
- A plague vpon]] the Tyrant that I [[serve, serue
- a sad tyrant , as my friends the Democrats sometimes are.
- Attache]] þo tyrauntz ...And fettereth fast falsenesse...And gurdeth of gyles [[hid, hed.
- That strang]] [[unmerciful, vnmercifull tyrand
[ Death].
- I was a blasphemar, and a persecuter, and a tyraunt .
- A pike (called the tyranne of fishes).
- O dissembling Curtesie! How fine this Tyrant Can tickle where she wounds?
- Public opinion, the greatest tyrant of these times.
- The Tyrant ... The courage of this little Bird is singular.
- The lesser tyrants' (''Tyrannulæ'') are spread over the whole of America, where they represent the true flycatcher... The ' tyrants are bold and quarrelsome birds, particularly during the season of incubation.
- Tyrant or Tyrant-bird, Catesby applied it solely to...the King-bird..., but apparently as much in reference to its bright crown...as to its tyrannical behaviour to other birds.
Synonyms
* (Greek ruler) archon, basileus, aisymnetes * (unjust or strict ruler or superior) autocrat, dictator, despot, martinet * (bird) tyrant bird, tyrant flycatcher, tyrant shrike, king bird, bee martinDerived terms
* tyrant-air * tyrant-bird * tyrant-chat * tyrant-craft * tyrantess (female form ) * tyrant-fish * tyrant-flycatcher * tyrant-hater * tyrant-hating * tyrant-killer * tyrant-killing * tyrant-kind * tyrant-like * tyrant-murder * Tyrant period * tyrant-queller * tyrant-quelling * tyrant-ridden * tyrant-scouraging * tyrant-shrike * tyrant-slayer * tyrant-tamer * tyrant-wrenAdjective
(head)- Milce nas þer mid him [King William] non...Ac as a tirant tormentor in speche]] & ek in [[deed, dede.
- He was most tirant & cruell of all emperours.
- Thus must I from the smoake]] into the smother,
From tyrant' Duke, [[unto, vnto a ' tyrant Brother.
- ...a reconciliation between our no longer parent state, but tyrant state, and these colonies.