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COMMANDING
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Used of a height or viewpoint
Example:
the balcony overlooking the ballroom
Synonyms:
commanding; dominating; overlooking
Classified under:
Similar:
high ((literal meaning) being at or having a relatively great or specific elevation or upward extension (sometimes used in combinations like 'knee-high'))
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb command
Context examples:
An elegant, moderate-sized house in the centre of family connexions; continual engagements among them; commanding the first society in the neighbourhood; looked up to, perhaps, as leading it even more than those of larger fortune, and turning from the cheerful round of such amusements to nothing worse than a tete-a-tete with the person one feels most agreeable in the world.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Neither would Mr. Knightley's downright, decided, commanding sort of manner, though it suits him very well; his figure, and look, and situation in life seem to allow it; but if any young man were to set about copying him, he would not be sufferable.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Hat and coat were off, and every line of the active figure, resolute face, and commanding attitude was full of energy and meaning.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
This morning, when I went to see him after his repulse of Van Helsing, his manner was that of a man commanding destiny.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
But he insisted in commanding me to let him know the best and the worst.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The lawn, bounded on each side by a high wall, contained beyond the first planted area a bowling-green, and beyond the bowling-green a long terrace walk, backed by iron palisades, and commanding a view over them into the tops of the trees of the wilderness immediately adjoining.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I speak, said Mrs. Micawber, as a female, necessarily; but I have always been of opinion that Mr. Micawber possesses what I have heard my papa call, when I lived at home, the judicial mind; and I hope Mr. Micawber is now entering on a field where that mind will develop itself, and take a commanding station.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
"Shall I?" I said briefly; and I looked at his features, beautiful in their harmony, but strangely formidable in their still severity; at his brow, commanding but not open; at his eyes, bright and deep and searching, but never soft; at his tall imposing figure; and fancied myself in idea his wife.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Our young friend, said Challenger, bunching up the red apples of his cheeks, is capable of acrobatic exertions which would be impossible to a man of a more solid, though possibly of a more commanding, appearance.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Bowing with the air of one accustomed to public praise, he stole to the cavern and ordered Hagar to come forth with a commanding, "What ho, minion! I need thee!"
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
