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Glite Dictionary
😡 A cruel boss 📚 A brutal character
Simon Legree

Simon Legree

1 9.9
A boss who treats workers very badly and without care
  • noun
  • /ˈsaɪmən ləˈɡri/
  • Literature
translation icon : Simon Legree
  • No one wanted to work for a Simon Legree, fearing unreasonable hours and harsh criticism.

Examples

  • My boss is a real Simon Legree when it comes to deadlines.

  • The workers referred to their manager as a Simon Legree because of his relentless demands and lack of compassion.

  • Her friends warned her not to become a Simon Legree after her promotion to supervisor.

  • Don't be such a Simon Legree to your employees!

  • The new manager was a real Simon Legree, enforcing impossible deadlines on his team.

  • Many employees feel like their boss is a Simon Legree for constantly demanding more work without any rewards.

  • In stories about bad workplaces, a Simon Legree often represents the tyrannical employer who mistreats employees.

Synonyms

cutthroat
vsSimon Legree
  • Offensive
3 7.5

A person in business or competition who tries to get ahead by hurting others

is focused on harsh treatment of employees rather than ruthless competition
slave-driver
vsSimon Legree
  • Offensive
1 7.5

A person who forces others to work very hard and treats them badly

is an employer who is excessively harsh and cruel toward staff

Antonyms

fair
∞ 1.0

Treating people equally and honestly

benevolent
53 5.1

Willing to help other people and give them things they need

How Harsh

Simon Legree
  • Literature
1 9.9
slave driver
  • Offensive
5 7.5
taskmaster
8 7.2
supervisor
346 2.8

Surface Forms

Simon Legree singular
Simon Legrees plural

Morphology

Simon + Legree

This is a proper-name allusion: the sense 'cruel or tyrannical person' comes from the literary character in Uncle Tom's Cabin, not from any compositional meaning of 'Simon' or 'Legree', so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent names cannot infer the meaning. Recognizing the expression requires cultural/literary knowledge rather than productive combination of word meanings, making it unpredictable for learners.

Etymology

Simon Legree comes from the cruel slave owner in the novel 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'. Because he treated people cruelly and forced them to work hard, his name now describes a boss who is very harsh or demanding.