Also 5 usurpur, 6 Sc. -ar. [a. OF. usurpeur (1321), or f. USURP v. + -ER1. Cf. USURPOR, and Pr. usurpaire.]
1. One who usurps a crown or throne; one who seizes or arrogates supreme power or authority without right or just cause.
In frequent use from c. 1700.
1414. Earl of Cambridge, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. I. 45. Harry of Lancastre usurpur of Yngland.
1477. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 193/2. His enemies mortall, the usurpers, laboryng … to exclude hym … from the Regalie.
1520. Caxton’s Chron. Eng., V. 62 b/1. He … slewe Leo the vsurper of his realme.
1574. Homilies, II. Rebellion, VI. 609. That forraigne false vsurper the Bishop of Rome.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Porrex, x. Vsurpers may perswade themselues a while There is no God, no lawes of sacred crowne.
1627. P. Fletcher, Locusts, I. xxi. They crowne Usurpers with a wreath of lead.
1663. South, Serm. (1717), V. 95. They sounded the first Trumpet to Rebellion,… courting and recognizing an Usurper [sc. Cromwell].
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iii. (1840), 68. If the Devil, the ancient usurper of his throne, had not been at work again to step up in his room.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 32. But King James was a bad king with a good title, and not an usurper.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, II. ii. The barons of England adhered to an usurper … rather than to their legitimate prince.
1869. J. Baldwin Brown, Misread Passages, ix. 124. Who would recognise an usurper because he occupies the palace and assumes the signet of the rightful king?
1882. J. Rhys, Celtic Britain, v. 189. Macbeth was not a mere usurper.
attrib. and Comb. 1670. Dryden, 1st Pt. Conq. Granada, III. i. Too well I know her blandishments to gain, Usurper-like, till settled in her reign.
1877. W. R. Cooper, Egyptian Obelisks, xii. 66. The power of the half usurper king of Egypt.
b. One who illegally or unjustly seizes, appropriates, or intrudes into any office, property, rights, etc. Also const. upon.
c. 1425. Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 682. There were bosters, braggars, & brybores,… Wrong vsurpers, with great extorcioners.
1567. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 547. Gif he [sc. a discharged custom-house officer] forder intromettis, he salbe repute ane usurpar to our Soverane Lordis authoritie.
1599. T. Storer, Life & D. Wolsey, D 4. Victorious Iosuah that in armes subdued Prophane vsurpers of their hallowed things, And smote their leaders.
1628. [see USURPATION 3].
1697. Dryden, Virg., Past., VIII. 62. In Desarts thou wert bred; And at the Dugs of Salvage Tygers fed: Alien of Birth, Usurper of the Plains.
1713. Gibson, Codex, 782/2. If the Incumbency be by Usurpation, and the Usurper and Ordinary Confirm the Parson’s Lease.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., x. Wks. 1813, III. 214. Compelled … to submit to the jurisdiction of magistrates whom they destested as usurpers.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng., III. 19. They represented him as … an unjust usurper upon the privileges of the council.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 237. The tyrant usurpers of our rights.
1840. Hood, Up Rhine, 47. ‘The end was, I got my bed.’ ‘And what excuse … did the usurper offer for his intrusion?’
c. fig. and transf.
a. 1628. F. Grevil, Cælica, xcvi. (1633), 244. Pleasure is chosen as a Goddesse fit, The wealth of Nature freely to impart;… Which faire Vsurper runnes a Rebel’s way.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., V. 186. The vsurpers of Gods word … maintaine … that famous Kingdome, being but one thousand and fifty Turkes in all.
1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Napoleon, ¶ 4. [He] becomes … actually a monopolizer and usurper of other minds.
1898. Talmage, Serm., in Chrn. Herald (N.Y.), 12 Jan., 24/3. That man has made that which might be a healthful recreation an usurper of his affections, and he has married it, and he is guilty of moral bigamy.
1900. ‘J. Doe,’ Bridge Man., 9. If a player deals out of turn he may be stopped…, but if he completes his deal, the deal holds good, and the usurpers make the declaration.
† 2. A conqueror or vanquisher of something.
1509. Parl. Devylles, lxiv. I [sc. Christ] am lorde and kynge of blysse, Usurper of dethe, myghty in fyght.
Hence Usurpership. rare–1.
1781. Bp. Watson, in Farquhar, Bps. of Dunkeld (1915), iii. 18. As if the Lord’s Day had been equally the institution of his [George III.’s] present usurpership.
