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

Is not he," they cried, "a man like ourselves, who wishes to domineer over us?

From A Literary History of the Arabs by Nicholson, Reynold

The cardinal, accustomed to domineer over even such old noble families as the Montmorencies, would do neither, and attempted to ride defiantly into the city.

From History of the Rise of the Huguenots Volume 2 by Baird, Henry Martyn

She's in love with being married, and having a country house of her own, and a husband to domineer over.

From Leonore Stubbs by Walford, L. B.

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

There are three whose life is no life:— He who lives at another's table; He whose wife domineers over him; And he who suffers bodily affliction.

From Life and Literature Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, and classified in alphabetical order by Richardson, John Purver

The picturesque, in short, domineers over English tragedy; the sculpturesque, or the statuesque, over the Grecian.

From The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg by Hogg, James

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 De Morgan, William Frend

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 Lee, Carson Jay

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

After the Cossacks came the Prussians, who remained a long time and were little better than the French—they lodged in free quarters, domineered without mercy, and paid for nothing.

From Before and after Waterloo Letters from Edward Stanley, sometime Bishop of Norwich (1802; 1814; 1816) by Stanley, Edward

In a nonlinear fashion, the novel follows a domineering teacher’s relationship with her students against the backdrop of fascism’s rise in Europe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 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

The actor was shown to no less domineering effect in The Great Santini, playing a frustrated Marine pilot who hectors and browbeats his teenage children.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026

Her life had gotten bound up with a domineering man, and so she shrank from the challenge her sisters were giving her.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez