plural fiefdoms
: an area over which someone exercises control as or in the manner of a feudal lord
The Seigneur could not sell his fiefdom without approval from the Queen.—
Timothy Foote
Timothy Foote… he encouraged the notion that the company was an extension of himself, and certainly it had been argued over the years that in his spending habits he treated it as his personal fiefdom.—Connie Bruck
Connie BruckThese men began to run Brazil as their personal fiefdom.—Sue Branford
Sue Branford… corruption and nepotism are as rife as ever, with regional party leaders running their local fiefdoms like mafia godfathers.—Michael A. Hall
Michael A. HallSynonyms
Examples of fiefdom in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The NGOs effectively became individual fiefdoms that displaced government agencies.
—Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 21 Apr. 2024
Tensions between two powerful rival factions that had already carved out fiefdoms in the country — the Sudanese Armed Forces, headed by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — exploded into open war.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2024
But there is another side to Ethiopian history: the country is made up of a patchwork of different ethnic groups, and in various eras when national authority has been weak, rival fiefdoms have jostled for control.
—Alex De Waal, Foreign Affairs, 8 Apr. 2024
The mere fact that universities allow some other powerful fiefdoms to exist doesn’t make computing’s centralization less concerning.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2024
The proliferation of police, gang and civilian checkpoints meanwhile is fracturing Haiti’s capital into wary and anxious fiefdoms.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024
No less absurd is the notion of its having been the fiefdom of a lad.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2024
Both parties are run as fiefdoms of dynastic families and have long been fixtures in Pakistani politics.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2024
Ruthless gangs have a stranglehold on the city, preying on the population, carving neighborhoods into warring criminal fiefdoms, and cutting Haiti’s international port off from the rest of the country.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 4 Mar. 2024
Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 21 Apr. 2024
Tensions between two powerful rival factions that had already carved out fiefdoms in the country — the Sudanese Armed Forces, headed by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — exploded into open war.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2024
But there is another side to Ethiopian history: the country is made up of a patchwork of different ethnic groups, and in various eras when national authority has been weak, rival fiefdoms have jostled for control.
—Alex De Waal, Foreign Affairs, 8 Apr. 2024
The mere fact that universities allow some other powerful fiefdoms to exist doesn’t make computing’s centralization less concerning.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 19 Mar. 2024
The proliferation of police, gang and civilian checkpoints meanwhile is fracturing Haiti’s capital into wary and anxious fiefdoms.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024
No less absurd is the notion of its having been the fiefdom of a lad.
—Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 26 Feb. 2024
Both parties are run as fiefdoms of dynastic families and have long been fixtures in Pakistani politics.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 11 Feb. 2024
Ruthless gangs have a stranglehold on the city, preying on the population, carving neighborhoods into warring criminal fiefdoms, and cutting Haiti’s international port off from the rest of the country.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 4 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fiefdom.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Fiefdom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiefdom. Accessed 1 May. 2024.
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