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say it: yoo-SURP
usurp is a verb meaning "seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession". It is pronounced /ˌjuˈsɝp/ — yoo-SURP. It carries 2 recorded senses.
seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession
“He assumed to himself the right to fill all positions in the town”
“he usurped my rights”
“She seized control of the throne after her husband died”
take the place of
“gloom had usurped mirth at the party after the news of the terrorist act broke”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for usurp come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.