pull rank
verb1
To assert one's authority over a subordinate who disagrees.
- Graduate schools teach students to use footnotes as authorities — barriers to anyone's questioning the author's conclusions. Professionalism then becomes a matter of pulling rank: the person who has the most footnotes has the last say.1980 February 9, Charley Shively, “Radical History: Not Radical Enough”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 28, page 12:
- And don't try pulling rank again: your answer, not your age, will determine your fate!2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: The Great Tree:
1 more example
- You can definitely pull rank on me on this —2025 August 1, Ezra Klein, “Behind Trump and Vance Is This Man’s Movement”, in The New York Times:
- Related terms
- throw one's weight around