hold sway

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English

Pronunciation

Verb

hold sway (third-person singular simple present holds sway, present participle holding sway, simple past and past participle held sway)

  1. (idiomatic) To have the greatest influence (over someone or something); to be pre-eminent; to dominate.
    • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China:
      Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.
    • 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 28 January 2021:
      Not only is Jon’s claim to the Iron Throne stronger than hers, thanks to a patriarchal society, but her heroic deeds—and the attendant risks—hold no sway in the North.
    • 2024 March 28, Nick Robins-Early, “‘He knew it was wrong’: Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years in prison over FTX fraud”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      Neither appeal seemed to hold sway with Kaplan, who stated that while he took into account that Bankman-Fried has autism and is socially awkward, he had committed a very serious crime.

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