Simon Legree

American  

[li-gree] / lɪˈgri /

noun

1. the brutal plantation owner in the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin who abuses and murders several enslaved people.

2. any harsh, merciless master.

   Our math teacher is a Simon Legree.

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Legree, Simon Cultural  

1. The cruel overseer and owner of slaves in Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Though the book describes conditions in the slaveholding states of the South, Legree, the most vicious character in it, is from New England.

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Example Sentences

Samuel Pinchard, the plantation owner, is a literary descendant of Simon Legree, but Jeffers has drawn him in the full height of psychological complexity.

From Washington Post

Men and women read it, talked about it, cried over the death of Little Eva and of Uncle Tom, shuddered at the cruelty of Simon Legree.

From Literature

He looked around the table appealingly, but the others had turned from him to another newcomer, a young man of dark and sinister aspect, whom they greeted as Simon Legree.

From Project Gutenberg

But where was the Army, outside of Simon Legree?

From Project Gutenberg

The story she tells of her childhood would make a Simon Legree turn pale with envy.

From Project Gutenberg