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

Separated from those causes of extrinsic splendour which domineer over other parts of our island, the opulent landholders freely dispense the wealth of their inheritance with unostentatious liberality. 

From A Tour throughout South Wales and Monmouthshire by J. T. Barber

The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him to much as to be obliged to condescend to persuade his inferiors.

From An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Germain Garnier

A deed magnanimous, a noble thought   Are as the music singing thro' the years   When surly Time the tyrant domineers Against the lute whereoutof it was wrought.

From The Diwan of Abu'l-Ala by Henry Baerlein

From this scene he had learned an alarming lesson: that the flesh domineers the soul and refuses to admit any schism.

From Là-bas by Keene Wallace

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

From Character Writings of the 17th Century by Various

He domineers over freshmen when they first come to the hatch, and puzzles them with strange language of cues and cees, and some broken Latin which he has learnt at his bin.

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

He runs the whole estate and domineers over her, and she don't dast to say her soul's her own.

From The Skipper and the Skipped Being the Shore Log of Cap'n Aaron Sproul by Holman Day

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

It seemed incredible to Alex that she could ever have bullied and domineered over Barbara.

From Consequences by E. M. Delafield

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

Through it all, however, West struggled with depression and a sense of self-loathing, and had trouble with intimacy, much of it a by-product of a hardscrabble childhood in West Virginia with a domineering father.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 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

Helen, the oldest sibling, is a domineering homemaker who has appointed herself keeper of the family recipes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

Then there’s the domineering Kennedy Airport air traffic controllers ordering the planes around.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell