Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A powerful, influential political figure who exercises leadership and control by force.
  • noun One who performs feats of strength, as at a circus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A performer who demonstrates feats of strength.
  • noun A man who competes in contests of physical strength.
  • noun A forceful or brutal person, usually applied to a ruler or tyrant.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a man who performs feats of strength at a fair or circus
  • noun a powerful political figure who rules by the exercise of force or violence

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But let’s step back for a moment: how far have we fallen when a leftist Latin American strongman is more persuasive in the international arena than the freaking President of the United States?

    Think Progress » Summit of the Americas: Then and Now 2005

  • Kremlin strongman Gordon Brown has once again shown the world that he's not a man to be messed with.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • Kremlin strongman Gordon Brown has once again shown the world that he's not a man to be messed with.

    World leader tranquillises big cat 2008

  • He is no Baltasar Garzón, the flamboyant, media-hungry Spanish magistrate who sought the extradition of Chile's Augusto Pinochet on charges that the Latin American strongman had Spaniards tortured and killed — and who is now weighing a possible case against some top Bush administration lawyers who gave advice clearing the way for the alleged torture of terror suspects.

    The Long Arm of the Law 2009

  • Proof that the odd strongman is often preferable to the alternative.

    Matthew Yglesias » Green Lantern in Indochina 2007

  • So the question of whether Bush should have installed a strongman is mute – it is like wondering what would happen if Bush could raise people from the dead.

    Matthew Yglesias » Green Lantern in Indochina 2007

  • Fresh from nationalizing almost every capitalist enterprise that yields a profit (or used to anyway), Latin American strongman Hugo Chávez has found a new class enemy: golf.

    Chávez Takes a Swing at Golf 2009

  • The Latin American strongman, his blond wife at his side, addresses the enraptured masses from the balcony of a presidential palace.

    Don't Cry For Me, Caracas 2008

  • Adding his own twist to the Latin American strongman railing against American policies, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras began talking to journalists on Tuesday.

    Honduras Fights U.S. Ban on Its Cantaloupes - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

  • Adding his own twist to the Latin American strongman railing against American policies, President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras began talking to journalists on Tuesday.

    Honduras Fights U.S. Ban on Its Cantaloupes - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

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