Definition of "strongman" [strongman]

• A powerful, influential political figure who exercises leadership and control by force. (noun)
• One who performs feats of strength, as at a circus. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But let’s step back for a moment: how far have we fallen when a leftist Latin American strongman is more persuasive in the international arena than the freaking President of the United States?"
• "Kremlin strongman Gordon Brown has once again shown the world that he's not a man to be messed with."
• "He is no Baltasar Garzón, the flamboyant, media-hungry Spanish magistrate who sought the extradition of Chile's Augusto Pinochet on charges that the Latin American strongman had Spaniards tortured and killed — and who is now weighing a possible case against some top Bush administration lawyers who gave advice clearing the way for the alleged torture of terror suspects."