To behave arrogantly, assuming airs of authority and self-importance; to dominate. The noun lord was already present in Middle English about a.d. 900. It began to be used as a verb to denote domineering in the seventeenth century, and was being used more figuratively still by the early nineteenth century, when Wordsworth wrote, “You grey towers that still rise up as if to lord it over air” (Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death). His contemporary across the Atlantic, Washington Irving, wrote, “The Kaatskill Mountains are seen . . . lording it over the surrounding country” (Rip VanWinkle, 1820).