Crossword clues for demagogue
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Demagogue \Dem"a*gogue\ (?; 115), n. [Gr. dhmagwgo`s a popular leader; commonly in a bad sense, a leader of the mob; dh^mos the people + 'agwgo`s leading, fr. 'a`gein to lead; akin to E. act: cf. F. d['e]magogue.] A leader of the rabble; one who attempts to control the multitude by specious or deceitful arts; an unprincipled and factious mob orator or political leader.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1640s, from Greek demagogos "popular leader," also "leader of the mob," from demos "people" (see demotic) + agogos "leader," from agein "to lead" (see act (n.)). Often a term of disparagement since the time of its first use, in Athens, 5c. B.C.E. Form perhaps influenced by French demagogue (mid-14c.).
by 1964, American English, from demagogue (n.). Related: Demagogued; demagoguing.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context historical English) A leader of the people. 2 (context pejorative English) A political orator or leader who gains favor by pandering to or exciting the passions and prejudices of the audience rather than by using rational argument. vb. (context intransitive and transitive English) To speak or act in the manner of a demagogue; to speak about (an issue) in the manner of a demagogue.
WordNet
n. an orator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of his audience [syn: demagog, rabble-rouser]
Wikipedia
A demagogue (from Greek δημαγωγός, a popular leader, a leader of the mob, from δῆμος, people, populace, the commons + ἀγωγός leading, leader) or rabble-rouser is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation. Demagogues have usually advocated immediate, violent action to address a national crisis while accusing moderate and thoughtful opponents of weakness or disloyalty. Demagogues violate established rules of political conduct; most who were elected to high office changed their democracy into some form of dictatorship.
Demagogues have appeared in democracies since ancient Athens. They exploit a fundamental weakness in democracy: because ultimate power is held by the people, nothing stops the people from giving that power to someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator of a large segment of the population.
Usage examples of "demagogue".
We have passed the age of the demagogue, the man who has little to say and says it loud.
Underwood, a crawling, shambling, shuffling, ignorant demagogue who had set a new standard of judicial honor and dignity.
He can assure the tired old President that he can offer what Bruening could not: a government supported by Hitler and yet without the inconvenience of having the fanatical demagogue in it.
No Licinius Crassus had ever been apostrophized as a demagogue or any other sort of political radical, so what was Catulus prating about?
Patrician though he was, that man was going to be a demagogue, another Gaius Marius.
They had even accused him of trying to become a bigger demagogue than Saturninus by wooing the Head Count!
The tribunate of the plebs appeals to men with a streak of the demagogue in them, like Clodius.
Greek concept, the demagogue was a politician whose chief appeal was to the crowds.
Caesar, the outside horse in the race for power, and was clever enough to know that Caesar was no demagogue, no political adventurer.
Roman magistrate, even the most unabashed demagogue who ever called himself a tribune of the plebs!
She had a deceptively keen mind, he was aware, and she thought like a businessman and wrote like a demagogue, but he doubted her abilities as a military strategist.
Even the worst demagogue has a pattern, a logic directed toward the praetorship and the consulship.
Instead of being a model of exemplary behavior to your juniors in this assemblage and to those outside in the Forum, you conduct yourself like the worst demagogue who ever prated from the rostra, like the most foul-mouthed heckler who ever stood at the back of any Forum crowd!
That he was now the President of the College of Tribunes of the Plebs did not bode well for tribunician antics of demagogue kind.
And, in fact, it looked as if not one of the ten who were elected was of the demagogue kind, nor was the election of the college followed by a spate of controversial new legislation.