Usurp \U*surp"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Usurped}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Usurping}.] [L. usurpare, usurpatum, to make use of, enjoy, get possession of, usurp; the first part of usurpare is akin to usus use (see {Use}, n.): cf. F. usurper.] 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, would of course be perfectly justifiable. --Burke.
Note: Usurp is applied to seizure and use of office, functions, powers, rights, etc.; it is not applied to common dispossession of private property.
Syn: To arrogate; assume; appropriate.
Usurp \U*surp"\, v. i. To commit forcible seizure of place, power, functions, or the like, without right; to commit unjust encroachments; to be, or act as, a usurper.
The parish churches on which the Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped. --Evelyn.
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.
The justices, in a defeat for the Reagan administration, said the law does not usurp presidential power.
Congressional passage of a bill to usurp this power by creating a new kind of prosecutor is comparable to the courts declaring war or the president granting certiorari.
Part of the industry's strategy for fighting the plan is to enlist the Pentagon in the lobbying struggle by arguing that the new agency would usurp the Defense Department's authority.
Some sportsmen accuse landowners like Grosfield of trying to usurp a natural resource for themselves.
When Xerox's Mr. Allaire flew to Houston recently to court a desirable potential client, he tried not to usurp the authority of his sales division.
Coastal didn't comment on TransAmerican's allegations, except to say that it regarded the suit "as an attempt to usurp the jurisdiction of the U.S. bankruptcy court."
The obvious cosiness between governors and its appointed management has inevitably emboldened others to seek to usurp the governors' function.
An upstart rival to the centuries-old City on its doorstep, dockland's ability to usurp the traditional role of the Square Mile was always in question.