hold sway

Related to hold sway: hold off, pay heed, defer to, seizes

hold sway (over someone)

To have or exert great control or influence (over someone). My father retired from politics years ago, but he still holds sway in the town to this day. It is suspected that the president's wife holds a lot of sway over the administration's policy.
See also: hold, sway
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

hold ˈsway (over somebody/something)

(literary) (of a person, a movement, an idea, etc.) have power, control or great influence over somebody/something: Rebel forces hold sway over much of the island. These ideas held sway for most of the century.
See also: hold, sway
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

hold sway

To have a controlling influence; dominate.
See also: hold, sway
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • hold sway (over someone)
  • hold sway over
  • lead (one) (around) by the nose
  • lead by the nose
  • lead somebody by the nose
  • lead someone by the nose
  • get (one's) claws into (someone)
  • get your claws into
  • get your claws into somebody
  • get your claws into someone
References in periodicals archive
Taunsvis hold sway in DG Khan and Dera Ismail Khan Districts.
'Pir' power and Pakistani politics
So, we trust that more discussions will take place soonest, and enlightened industry leaders and viewers will eventually hold sway again-and the final configuration of the 2017 official entries will still uphold quality above all else.
One step forward, two steps back
A FREE vote on whose sovereignty should hold sway over the town of Berwick has resulted in a resounding decision to be part of Scotland again (The Journal, February 23).
Letter: English treated as second-class citizens; VOICE OF THE NORTH
IF THERE'S any subject where Marxist theories about economic exploitation still hold sway in America, it's military recruiting.
Middle-class warfare: military recruits and poverty
The duo have clashed once before, and on the evidence of that running in the King George VI Chase, Kicking King is going to hold sway once more, particularly as he is on home territory.
RACING : Battle royal to be king of Kings
Susan Pedersen and others have focused attention on the provisions for mothers that made it easier either for them to stay at home or to combine child care and paid labor, but the view that the welfare state had to await the galvanizing political effect of World War II to come to fruition has continued to hold sway. Such a view harmonizes with the prevailing characterization of the interwar period as "the hollow years" in French political life, and with the position so elegantly argued decades ago by Stanley Hoffmann that the Third Republic enshrined the immobility of a "stalemate society."
Creating the Welfare State in France, 1880-1940
Past assumptions about spiritual needs and beliefs, religious attitudes and allegiances, no longer hold sway. All this means that the past ways of doing ministry no longer speak to the needs of most people." In response, they emphasize the need to take the church to the local community.
Entrepreneurial Faith: Launching Bold Initiatives to Expand God's Kingdom
In this sense, the Boston folks still hold sway, but even that's changing.
Who's who: Kerry-Edwards campaign edition
However,it seems that democracy means nothing and a minority of people who look to the past instead of the future, will hold sway; and Anfield will continue to decline,as it most certainly will if LFC,its main business interest, is forced to move away.
Letter: Park decline
Despite a somewhat brighter economic picture, tenants looking for space continued to hold sway in Fairfield County in the first nine months of 2003.
Financial services sector provides boost to Fairfield County
He notes that neither opinion should hold sway today.
New pencils and new Crayolas[R]