How to Use usurp in a Sentence

usurp

verb
  • Some people have accused city council members of trying to usurp the mayor's power.
  • The court of public opinion usurped the courts of law.
    — Lynn Zovighian, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Just as cable was usurped by fibre.
    — Sam Knight, New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2025
  • Will the current leaders hold on, or will they be usurped at the last minute?
    — Dom Luszczyszyn, The Athletic, 22 Feb. 2025
  • Nobody at Sky will lose sleep about being usurped any time soon.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Will the girls resent the new children, feeling their place has been usurped?
    — Georgene Smith Goodin, chicagotribune.com, 8 Apr. 2018
  • Now that the browser as tool has usurped the browser as being, what are we left with?
    — Suzannah Showler, WIRED, 3 Oct. 2023
  • Ekitike is usurped by a man who cost his new club nothing in terms of a transfer fee.
    — James McNicholas, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Yet their job is to try to guide the president to good policy, not usurp his role.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 12 Nov. 2019
  • And could Sigur do enough to usurp the veteran?
    — Joshua Kloke, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2026
  • His wife, Meredith, son, Bennett, and his faith all usurp his day job.
    — Max Rego, CNN Money, 17 July 2025
  • She was accused nearly a year ago of trying to usurp power and prestige from the queen.
    — Kocha Olarn, Helen Regan and Joshua Berlinger, CNN, 3 Sep. 2020
  • None of these can usurp the top position of that list from the devious aaloo methi.
    — Quartz Staff, Quartz India, 26 Nov. 2019
  • Of all the gadgets smartphones usurped and sent to the grave, the alarm clock was among the first and most deserving.
    — Matt Jancer, Wired, 5 Feb. 2020
  • Again, West Ham worked behind his back in advance of usurping him.
    — Phil Hay, The Athletic, 9 Jan. 2025
  • To usurp those rules, the politicians teamed up with developers to create a clever con.
    — Scott Maxwell, Orlando Sentinel, 11 July 2024
  • The running mate’s role is to support and amplify the boss’s message, not to usurp it.
    — John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 15 July 2016
  • To usurp the hostess’s chair would be a great show of disrespect for the hostess and an insult to the host.
    — Jacobina Martin, Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2023
  • Aegon usurped the throne all sneaky like from Rhaenyra and her husband, Daemon.
    — Omar L. Gallaga, Washington Post, 17 June 2024
  • The two are separate, Bourne writes, even if, in war, the state tries to usurp the country and speak for it.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026
  • But then, very quickly, that got usurped by the much bigger things going on in our industry with the strike.
    — Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Aug. 2023
  • That Biden has been thwarted in his attempt to usurp the role of Congress is welcome.
    — The Editors, National Review, 28 Aug. 2021
  • But Real Madrid could usurp both with a nine-figure bid for the Serbian.
    — SI.com, 10 June 2018
  • The sequel explains the prince’s royal heritage while telling the back story of how the uncle usurped the throne.
    — Siddharth Vikram Philip, Bloomberg.com, 25 May 2017
  • James may never usurp Michael Jordan in the greatest-of-all-time debate.
    — Marc Stein, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2020
  • And by this point, Butler had usurped Rose, the Bulls’ biggest and brightest.
    — K.c. Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 10 June 2018
  • And, after months when covid-19 wholly usurped the agenda, Brexit is back to the fore.
    — The Economist, 28 May 2020
  • Vintage fiberglass end chairs and a pair of cushy benches usurped the traditional dining set.
    — Betsy Cribb Watson, Southern Living, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Maybe the Supreme Court is getting tired of lower courts that try to usurp its authority.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 25 May 2019
  • The fact that Colby usurped fourth-year pro Nick Zakelj was a bit surprising.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 19 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'usurp.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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