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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Usurp

U-sūrp', v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. USURPED (yū-zûrpt'); p. pr. & vb. n. USURPING.] [Fr. usurper, Pr., Sp., & Pg. usurpar, It. & Lat. usurpare, contracted from Lat. usurpare, i. e., to seize to one's own use, from usus, use, and rapere, to seize.] 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.

Vice sometimes usurps the place of virtue. Denham.

☞ Usurp is not applied to common dispossession of private property.

Synonyms—To arrogate; assume; appropriate.

U-sūrp', v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To commit violent seizure of right; to be or act as a usurper. [Rare.] “The parish churches on which the Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped.” Evelyn.

Another revolution, to get rid of this illegitimate and usurped government, would be perfectly justifiable. Burke.

And now the Spirits of the Mind Are busy with poor Peter Bell; Upon the rights of visual sense Usurping, with a prevalence More terrible than magic spell. Wordsworth.