pull rank

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pull rank (third-person singular simple present pulls rank, present participle pulling rank, simple past and past participle pulled rank)

1. To assert one's authority over a subordinate who disagrees.
   • 1980 February 9, Charley Shively, “Radical History: Not Radical Enough”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 12:

     Graduate schools teach students to use footnotes as authorities — barriers to anyone's questioning the author's conclusions. Professionalism then becomes a matter of pulling rank: the person who has the most footnotes has the last say.

   • 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: The Great Tree:

     And don't try pulling rank again: your answer, not your age, will determine your fate!

• throw one's weight around

• “pull rank”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “pull rank”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “pull rank on somebody” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.