high-handed

/'haigreid/

Thân thiện

The manager's high-handed decision ignored the team's suggestions.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Arrogantly overbearing and domineering: Describes behavior that is unpleasantly or offensively authoritative, showing a disregard for the opinions, feelings, or rights of others.
   • Using power or authority without considering others: Acting in a forceful and decisive way that seems unfair because it ignores consultation or consensus.

Usage and Examples

• General Use:

  • The manager's high-handed decision to cancel the project without consulting the team caused widespread resentment.
  • She was criticized for her high-handed manner in dealing with customer complaints.

• Describing Actions or Behavior:

  • It was a high-handed act to dismiss the employee without a proper hearing.
  • The government's high-handed approach to the new policy sparked public protests.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

• "high-handedness" (Noun): The quality or state of being high-handed.
  • The public will not tolerate such high-handedness from their elected officials.
• Often implies an abuse of legitimate authority or a failure to follow due process. It suggests the person acting believes they are above the rules or common courtesy.

Variants and Related Words

• Overbearing: Excessively controlling or domineering.
• Arrogant: Having an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.
• Autocratic: Relating to a ruler who has absolute power; taking no account of other people's wishes.
• Dictatorial: Characteristic of a dictator; tyrannical.
• Imperious: Assuming power or authority without justification; arrogant and domineering.

Synonyms

• Domineering
• Authoritarian
• Despotic
• Peremptory
• Tyrannical

Antonyms

• Democratic
• Humble
• Modest
• Considerate
• Consultative

Idiomatic Expressions and Phrases

• To act in a high-handed manner/fashion: To behave in an imperious and dictatorial way.
  • The committee accused the chairman of acting in a high-handed fashion by overriding their vote.
• While "high-handed" itself is not typically part of phrasal verbs, it is commonly used in the phrase "high-handed tactics" to describe forceful, unfair methods.
  • The union condemned the company's high-handed tactics during the negotiations.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. given to haughty disregard of others

Từ đồng nghĩa

• cavalier