Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state, office, or dignity of an overlord; specifically, in reference to early English history, the preëminence or authority of one of the Anglo-Saxon kings or kingdoms over certain other kings, kingdoms, chiefs, etc. Such an overlordship was held at different times by kings of Kent, Northumberland, Mercia, and Wessex.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Lordship or supremacy of a person or a people over others.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The position or quality of being an overlord.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the position of overlord

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

overlord +‎ -ship

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Examples

  • We have now arrived at the commencement of the long dispute about the "overlordship".

    An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) Robert S. Rait

  • During the last weeks of Martin's wooing, she had withdrawn herself a little from the business of the farm into a kind of overlordship, from which she was far more free to detach herself than from personal service.

    Joanna Godden Sheila Kaye-Smith 1921

  • The possession of Mantua was decisive of Italian destiny, for its holder could command a kind of overlordship in every little Italian state.

    The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte Vol. I. (of IV.) William Milligan Sloane 1889

  • It is possible that the Senoussi tribe will emerge from Benghazi's chaos and reassert its historic overlordship of eastern Libya.

    Eric Margolis: After Bombing Libya, What Now? Eric Margolis 2011

  • He needn't; in this freakish expression of our overlordship, we already are.

    Wildlife Without Life Elizabeth Lowry 2011

  • All the content of my mind seemed to be an absolute faith in the overlordship of the mind.

    Chapter 11 2010

  • “If Herr Hitler was prepared to make peace on the terms of the restoration of German colonies and the overlordship of Central Europe, that was one thing,” he soothed.

    BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL ROBERT MNOOKIN 2010

  • “If Herr Hitler was prepared to make peace on the terms of the restoration of German colonies and the overlordship of Central Europe, that was one thing,” he soothed.

    BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL ROBERT MNOOKIN 2010

  • “If Herr Hitler was prepared to make peace on the terms of the restoration of German colonies and the overlordship of Central Europe, that was one thing,” he soothed.

    BARGAINING WITH THE DEVIL ROBERT MNOOKIN 2010

  • Johnson peppered Swing with demands for background information about the Imperial Valley, “particularly ... the hold of the banks and the tyranny of those who hold the mortgages, the newspaper ownership, the Chandler overlordship, etc.”

    Colossus Michael Hiltzik 2010

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