under the heel of (someone)

idiom

: completely controlled by (another person, group, etc.)
They are under the heel of a tyrant.

Examples of under the heel of (someone) in a Sentence

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In the late 1970s, Argentina was under the heel of a military dictatorship. Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 21 Apr. 2025 Crush of mint under the heel of a little girl enjoying her small but definite powers. Elisa Gonzalez, Harper's Magazine, 20 Sep. 2023 This willful ignorance stems from our long-standing refusal to see the violent overthrow of Reconstruction governments, the systematic murdering of Black voters, and the century-long terror that kept an entire people under the heel of white tyranny as America’s own history of white dictatorship. Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, The New Republic, 23 Oct. 2020

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“Under the heel of (someone).” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/under%20the%20heel%20of%20%28someone%29. Accessed 2 May. 2025.

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