usurping

verb

present participle of usurp
as in seizing
to take or make use of under a guise of authority but without actual right the mayor usurped the school board's authority when he fired the principal

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of usurping One wonders how long the citizens of those communities are going to put up with the state usurping their authority to govern themselves. — Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 9 Apr. 2026 But even with the UFC’s challenges, no rival promotion has come close to usurping the sport’s power dynamic. — Mark Puleo, New York Times, 21 May 2026 The opposition’s narrative that Hollywood is usurping home rule is entirely backward. — Keith Poliakoff, Sun Sentinel, 1 June 2026 This would seem to challenge the notion that AI usurping human skills will democratize them—for instance, by broadening who is able to contribute meaningfully to math’s advancement. — Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 16 Mar. 2026 Hegseth and Feinberg, Phelan said, had imposed rigid control over submarine and shipbuilding decisions, effectively usurping the Navy’s authority, these people said. — Dan Lamothe, Washington Post, 2 May 2026 Beulah's spurned heir Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba) calls up the mysterious Mariana (Raoul Max Trujillo) to help with his many problems, which include his ranch-usurping half-brother Rob-Will and those Duttons from Montana. — Bryan Alexander, USA Today, 3 July 2026 Callie is popular and vivacious, perpetually surrounded by admirers and various hangers-on (Audrey Grace Marshall’s Cara is hellbent on usurping Minnie’s place in Callie’s life, while her himbo-esque boyfriend Brad is given wonderful dimension through Beck Nolan’s sneaky-good performance). — Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 13 Feb. 2026 The War of the Two Caesars also serves as a nice mirror for everything going down with the Brotherhood, Elder Cleric Quintus still hellbent on usurping the Commonwealth despite the arrival of Kumail Nanjiani’s Paladin Xander Harkness, an emissary from that neck of the woods. — Jack King, Vulture, 31 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for usurping
  1. seizing
  2. stealing
  3. confiscating
  4. grabbing
  5. occupying
  6. claiming
  7. converting
Verb
  • Authorities served a search warrant at the rescue on May 1, seizing electronics, business records, financial records, firearms, and other evidence, according to the sheriff.
    — Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 30 June 2026
  • For leadership teams worldwide, this requires striking a careful balance between responding to immediate disruption and seizing arising opportunities to bolster growth.
    — Anna Marks, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of seizing
Verb
  • Peterson left office in 2017 after pleading guilty to stealing from his own campaign fund.
    — Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 7 July 2026
  • He’s accused of stealing $3 million from the client’s Northern Trust account involving about 200 transactions over a decade until he was fired from the private wealth-management bank in fall 2024.
    — Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 6 July 2026
Definition of stealing
Verb
  • In some videos, survivors accused soldiers of looting apartments and confiscating donated supplies—claims that remain difficult to independently verify but have fueled widespread outrage.
    — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 29 June 2026
  • Amid anecdotal reports that airport security services have been confiscating bottles of ranch dressing that sports tourists have tried to smuggle out of the country, Kraft Heinz came up with a TSA-friendly size of ranch dressing.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 25 June 2026
Definition of confiscating
Verb
  • Americans are grabbing their passports and fleeing the country in hopes of leaving the nation’s problems behind.
    — Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 2 July 2026
  • Swanson argues those behind-the-scenes improvements have done more to modernize logistics than many of the industry’s headline-grabbing automation projects.
    — Glenn Taylor, Footwear News, 2 July 2026
Definition of grabbing
Verb
  • Beneath those practical debates, however, American lawyers have gradually come to understand themselves as occupying two roles simultaneously, as Robert Gordon described.
    — Joseph Andrew, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
  • For now, Neil the seal is occupying a stretch of sidewalk, unmoving and unbothered.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 3 July 2026
Definition of occupying
Verb
  • Also requested were documents related to a lawsuit, recently settled for $135,000, claiming Kramer had given an improper assessment of a property and retaliated against an employee who complained.
    — Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 7 July 2026
  • In December, former employee Joshua Denton sued the brewery, claiming management ignored years of warnings about OSHA safety violations, did not comply with ADA regulations and wrongfully terminated him.
    — Amber Gaudet, Charlotte Observer, 6 July 2026
Definition of claiming
Verb
  • Egypt brought the calm, cool, collected factors to the shootout, converting on all four attempts from Mahmoud Saber, Rami Rabia, Mohamed Salah and Hossam Abdelmaguid.
    — Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 3 July 2026
  • The key difference lies in the process for converting the fissile material to be bomb usable (chemical reprocessing in the case of plutonium, rather than enrichment, which can be done covertly and in small batches).
    — Ilan Berman, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of converting

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Cite this Entry

“Usurping.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/usurping. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of usurping for Spanish Speakers

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