0 past simple and past participle of usurp --
1 to take control of a position of power, especially without having the right to: --
Local control is being usurped by central government.
By contrast, some of the more interesting instances of this influence occur when authority has been usurped, and the weaknesses of individuals are acerbically exploited in pictorial form.
He usurped the judicial authority by trying capital cases and exerting punishment by death, exile, or confiscation of property of those he disliked or whose property he desired.
Any rule can be usurped, as a strong argument or a compelling discussion will do.
The implied result was an authoritarian state, the bureaucratic machine having usurped the role of the architect.
These agencies, critics argued, unfairly usurped the power of the judiciary and un12.
Only now it is singing in duet with another voice, a man's - the very ruler the king has usurped and imprisoned.
This right, however, was not seen as one that they had undeservedly usurped for themselves.
A generation later, when a new leadership and often a new regime have usurped the leadership role?
