domineer

American  

[dom-uh-neer] / ˌdɒm əˈnɪər /

verb (used with or without object)

• domineers,
  present (3rd person singular)
• domineered,
  past participle,  past
• domineering
  present participle

1. to rule arbitrarily or despotically; tyrannize.

2. to tower; to tower over or above.

   The castle domineers the town.

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domineer British  

/ ˌdɒmɪˈnɪə /

verb

1. to act with arrogance or tyranny; behave imperiously

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• domineering
  present
• domineered
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• domineer
  simple
• domineers
  simple
• have domineered
  perfect
• has domineered
  perfect
• am domineering
  progressive
• are domineering
  progressive
• is domineering
  progressive
• have been domineering
  perfect progressive
• has been domineering
  perfect progressive

Past

• domineered
  simple
• had domineered
  perfect
• was domineering
  progressive
• were domineering
  progressive
• had been domineering
  perfect progressive

Future

• will domineer
  simple
• will have domineered
  perfect
• will be domineering
  progressive
• will have been domineering
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of domineer

First recorded in 1585–95; from Dutch domineren, from French dominer, from Latin dominārī, equivalent to domin(us) “lord” + -ārī infinitive suffix

Explanation

The verb domineer means to rule with tyranny and absolute power, like what may occur in a dictatorship — or possibly within a household if one person is a little too bossy. If you’ve ever been around someone who tends to domineer, it won’t surprise you to learn that the word domineer can be traced all the way back to the Latin word dominus, meaning “lord, master.” It can certainly seem like a person with an impulse to domineer acts like your lord and master. The word also has an adjective form, domineering, which is used to describe those with a tendency to domineer.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

domineer domineers domineered domineering

He could dominate and domineer musicians in a recording studio, once upon a time, but he couldn’t charm 12 people on a 2007 jury into believing his story.

From Time ● Mar. 21, 2013

It goes to the head like wine, and you find attempts made outside journalism to dictate, to domineer to blackmail.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mr. Jerningham would domineer over him, and Æolus, should the violent god be pleased to send for him, would at once annihilate him.

From Marion Fay by Anthony Trollope

By-and-by the blue-eyed, mystic-mild face in the upper window of the old gray tower began to domineer in a very remarkable manner upon Pierre.

From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville

At first she had merely liked to patronize the young college boy; rather to domineer over him, looking upon him as a child in comparison with herself.

From Mildred Arkell, Volume II (of 3) A Novel by Mrs. Henry Wood

Bessie—well, this little fair-haired "find" says all sorts of pretty, indiscreet things, interrupts tête-à-têtes, intrudes upon conferences, artlessly domineers over everybody, closing each day's performances by going to sleep upon the arm of Sir Donald.

From Oswald Langdon or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898 by Carson Jay Lee

A pure idea, without a material hand or weapon, domineers over the greatest empire under the sun, in spite of the whole power of that empire armed to crush it.

From Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864 Devoted to Literature and National Policy by Various

A country wedding and Whitson-ale are the two main places he domineers in, where he goes for a musician, and overlooks the bag-pipe.

From Microcosmography or, a Piece of the World Discovered; in Essays and Characters by John Earle

I listened to it sitting in the hop-oast, whose tower, like a castle turret, overlooks and domineers the yard.

From Field and Hedgerow Being the Last Essays of Richard Jefferies by Richard Jefferies

But Miss Arkwright's nurse Jane domineers into the peaceful circle with a clairvoyance that Miss Gwendolen is giving trouble, and bears her away rebellious.

From Somehow Good by William Frend De Morgan

Detractors say he sometimes domineered those around him, allowed his temper to erupt and, according to another former official, “has an ego the size of the Empire State Building.”

From Washington Post ● Jun. 22, 2021

Irish-born actress Maureen O’Hara was one of the biggest stars in films of the 1940s and ’50s, an era when it was common for leading ladies to be domineered by male heroes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2015

In the orphanage, in the Navy, in these last months of drifting, they had always subtly domineered over him.

From Time Magazine Archive

Many a U. S. newsorgan was snipped or censored in Cuba while "Tyrant" President Gerardo Machado domineered, but last week his more liberal successors found something which even they resolved to suppress.

From Time Magazine Archive

But with regard to her health Mrs. Rutherford rather liked to be domineered over.

From East Angels by Constance Fenimore Woolson

Born in 1929 to a wealthy and conservative family -- by her account with a domineering mother and philandering father -- Kusama began producing her unique signature art aged 10.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

“Harry’s psychic debt to Janet,” Mr. Jelly-Schapiro writes, “quickly grew deep,” and soon Jay Kennedy—a name the man had adopted years earlier, after leaving the Communist Party—became Belafonte’s domineering manager.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Laurie Metcalf plays Linda, the siblings’ domineering mother.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2026

In fact he is the opposite — a domineering strongman who seeks to bully everyone around him into compliance.

From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2026

He began speaking in a loud, rather domineering voice.

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier