A military commander or commander-in-chief. Often used to render Kriegsherr as a title of the German Emperor; also attrib.
humorously. 1847. Morning Courier (Louisille, KY), 11 Dec., 2/4. The widow of a famous pyrotechnist … remarked of her war-lord that, ‘He had gone to that blessed place where only his fire-works could be exceeded.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Aristocr., Wks. (Bohn), II. 77. Piracy and war gave place to trade, politics, and letters; the war-lord to the law-lord.
1875. Morris, Æneids, IX. 39. Æneas, war-lord wise.
1888. Boston (Mass.) Transcript, 7 July, 4/4. The very bristling and ‘war-lord’ talk of the young Emperor William.
1897. Edin. Rev., Oct., 534. The officers of the [German] army, with all their traditional loyalty to their ‘war-lord.’
Hence Warlordship, the status of a war-lord.
1890. Gazette (Montreal), 25 Feb., 8/6. Veritably wrapped in visions of his [the Kaiser’s] warlordship, covered with blood and cannon flashes.
1913. C. Tower, Germany of To-day, ii. 36. The Kaisership is the old Presidency of the bund plus the warlordship.
