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To seize, and hold in possession, by force, or without right; as, to usurp a throne; to usurp the prerogatives of the crown; to usurp power; to usurp the right of a patron is to oust or dispossess him. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. Shak. Another revolution, to get rid of this illegitimate and usurped government, wo…

Usurping; encroaching. [Obs.] Gauden.

The act of usurping, or of seizing and enjoying; an authorized, arbitrary assumption and exercise of power, especially an infringing on the rights of others; specifically, the illegal seizure of sovereign power; -- commonly used with of, also used with on or upon; as, the usurpation of a throne; the usurpation of the s…

Marked by usurpation; usurping. [R.]

Usurpation. [R.] "Beneath man's usurpature." R. Browning.

One who usurps; especially, one who seizes illegally on sovereign power; as, the usurper of a throne, of power, or of the rights of a patron. A crown will not want pretenders to claim it, not usurpers, if their power serves them, to possess it. South.

In a usurping manner.

To usurp, as jurisdiction or royal prerogatives. They had attempted to accroach to themselves royal power. Stubbs.

An encroachment; usurpation. [Obs.] Bailey.

ng to the knee, and buckled or fastened there; smallclothes. -- To wear the breeches, to usurp the authority of the husband; -- said of a wife. [Colloq.]

e Commune of Paris, or The Commune (a) The government established in Paris (1792-94) by a usurpation of supreme power on the part of representatives chosen by the communes; the period of its continuance is known as the "Reign of Terror." (b) The revolutionary government, modeled on the commune of 1792, which the commun…

; conflict; combat; encounter. The late battle had, in effect, been a contest between one usurper and another. Hallam. It was fully expected that the contest there would be long and fierce. Macaulay.

or allow; to deny. Then they, who brother's better claim disown, Expel their parents, and usurp the throne. Dryden.

sually followed by of before the thing taken away; as, to dispossess a king of his crown. Usurp the land, and dispossess the swain. Goldsmith.

ed as a symbol of the holder of a distaff; hence, a woman; women, collectively. His crown usurped, a distaff on the throne. Dryden. Some say the crozier, some say the distaff was too busy. Howell.

dual of the female sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female tenderness. "Female usurpation.'b8 Milton. To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America. Belknap.

und. As valid against such an old and beneficent government as against . . . the greenest usurpation. Burke.

experience makes it impudence to deny. Locke. Where pride and impudence (in fashion knit) Usurp the chair of wit. B. Jonson.

; a jot; a particle. They never depart an iota from the authentic formulas of tyranny and usurpation. Burke. Iota subscript (Gr. Gram.), iota written beneath a preceding vowel, as a,, h,, w,, -- done when iota is silent.

The habit of soliloquizing, or of monopolizing conversation. It was not by an insolent usurpation that Coleridge persisted in monology through his whole life. De Quincey.