Definition of strongman
: one who leads or controls by force of will and character or by military methods
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Examples of strongman in a Sentence
a Latin-American strongman who basically treated his nation's coffers as his personal bank account
Recent Examples of strongman from the Web
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When the Spanish Civil War began, in 1936, fascism was on the march across Europe, as a new breed of strongman leader emerged from the horrors and economic ravages of the First World War and the Great Depression.
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Among Bell’s other notorious clients are Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus; Asma al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian strongman Bashar; and government representatives of the repressive state of Bahrain.
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During his decades in power, Mahathir ruled as a strongman leader and frequently used the draconian Internal Security Act to go after critics and enemies.
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While former soldiers and security force members have circled Iran's politics, a military strongman has never emerged to run Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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The move alarmed advocates of political liberalization in China who saw it as part of a global trend of strongman leaders casting aside constitutional checks, like Vladimir V. Putin in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey.
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What would Galeano have said about the present World Cup, hosted by a country (Russia) run by a strongman (Putin)?
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Nor will the sanctions cause the Russian public to turn against their strongman leader, or foment a debate inside the country about the direction of its foreign policy, according to Boulègue.
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South Korea also pulled off the tricky transformation from an authoritarian state, ruled for the better part of two decades by strongman leader Park Chung-hee, to a full-fledged democracy.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'strongman.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of strongman
1859
STRONGMAN Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of strongman for English Language Learners
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: a politician or leader who uses violence or threats
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: a man who performs in a circus and who is very strong
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See words that rhyme with strongman Britannica English: Translation of strongman for Arabic speakers
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