autocrat definition - Dictionary

Dictionary

au·to·crat [ áwtə kràt ] (plural au·to·crats)

noun

Definition:

1. ruler with absolute authority: a ruler who holds unlimited power and is answerable to no other person

2. bossy person: somebody who dominates others

[Early 19th century. Via French autocrate< Greek autokratēs "independent authority" < kratos "power"]

au·to·crat·ic [ àwtə kráttik ] adjective

au·to·crat·i·cal·ly adverb

Cultural Note


	The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, a book of essays and poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1858). One of a series of works that also includes The Professor at the Breakfast Table and The Poet at the Breakfast Table, this humorous collection satirizes, among other targets, Calvinism and medical bigotry.