Master of the Universe
1
9.6
- noun
- Informal
:
Señor del Universo
- He acted like a Master of the Universe, making decisions that affected thousands without consulting anyone else.
Examples
-
Many leaders in the tech industry believe they are the Masters of the Universe who control the future of technology.
-
"But I am a Master of the Universe.
-
The Master of the Universe was going down for the third time.
-
A Master of the Universe.
-
For these men, for these Masters of the Universe, and Sherman McCoy was one of them, there were no limits whatsoever.
-
But even for a Master of the Universe like Romney, his off-the-cuff comments seem callous and breathtakingly unaware of his position.
Blog text (11) -
In the high-stakes world of finance, some traders see themselves as Masters of the Universe, wielding power over the markets.
Synonyms
∞
3.7
A person in charge of a group or place
21
8.4
A person who has great power and controls a country or people
9
7.9
A person who secretly controls other people and their actions
8
9.9
A person who wants power very much and thinks they are more important than other people
1
8.9
A person who tries to control others and make all important decisions
A person or group much more powerful than others in an area
A person who thinks everything should be about them
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who has or believes they have ultimate power' is directly and compositionally derived from 'master' + 'of' + 'the' + 'universe'; knowing the constituent words allows a learner to infer someone who 'masters' the entire universe. The phrase contains no opaque idiomatic shift or hidden cultural meaning (function words do not alter literal interpretation) and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so it should be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Master of the Universe may come from a simple picture: a Master holding or directing the whole Universe, like someone who thinks they control everything. So, it is used for a person who behaves as if they have 'ultimate power' over people or events.