[a. F. tyrannicide (1583 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. L. tyrannicīda, f. tyrannus TYRANT: see -CIDE 1. So It. tirannicida.] One who kills a tyrant.
1657. W. Blois, Mod. Policies, etc. (ed. 7), C vij. An honest Scot, who complains, that there are not some glorious rewards appointed for Tyrannicides.
1692. Washington, trans. Milton’s Def. Pop., v. M.’s Wks. (1847), 380/1. They … erect statues in their temples to the honour of tyrannicides.
1700. Toland, Harrington’s Oceana, Pref. 9. Cremutius Cordus, who was condemn’d by that Monster Tiberius for speaking honorably of the immortal Tyrannicides Brutus and Cassius.
1809. Edin. Rev., April, 227. [Debry] proposed the formation of a corps of Tyrannicides.
1832. Carlyle, Misc., Boswell’s Johnson (1840), IV. 77. The English Nation had rebelled against a Tyrant; and, by the hands of religious tyrannicides, exacted stern vengeance of him.
1874. Symonds, Sk. Italy & Gr. (1898), I. xv. 344. Memories of … Brutus, and other exalted tyrannicides, exalted his imagination.
1904. Sat. Rev., 30 July, 144. The exact amount of blood-money received by each of the ‘patriots,’ who posed as tyrannicides.
