To hold sway is to have controlling influence over something. That view held sway for a century.
To hold sway always implies a period rather than a moment. Whatever ideas hold sway in one generation are usually laughed at by the next.
1phrasehold swayTo have controlling influence over something.
“One family would hold sway over the whole valley for two hundred years.”
hold sway is a phrase.
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire