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tin-pot dictatorship

noun

Etymology

From tin-pot dictator + -ship.

  1. borrowed from dictātor — “a chief magistrate”
  2. compounded as tin-pot dictator — “tin-pot + dictator”
  3. suffixed as tin-pot dictatorship — “tin-pot dictator + -ship”

Definitions

  1. A country ruled by a tin-pot dictator

    A country ruled by a tin-pot dictator; an autocracy, especially one ruled by someone with delusions of grandeur.

    • And, if so, why not the arms-dealer who sells his products to some tin-pot dictatorship, knowing that they will be used to slaughter innocent women and kids?
    • Speaking of the suspension of habeas corpus, and the curbs on the press, he warned that Mrs Gandhi was turning her country into a 'tin-pot dictatorship'.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tin-pot dictatorship. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA