[f. USURPER + -ESS1.] A female usurper.

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1640.  Howell, Dodona’s Gr., 26. She is a double Vsurpresse, in detaining not only Elaiana from her right, but [etc.].

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c. 1650.  Don Bellianis, 210. Faint not, Usurpress of anothers heart, but animate yourself.

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1658.  Cleveland, Rustic Rampant, 122. She had seized the Kingdome as an Usurpresse by Tyrannie.

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1805.  Pennant’s London, 245. An innocent usurpress [sc. Lady Jane Gray] succeeded to her apartments in 1553.

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1834.  in Standard, 31 July, 2/1. Deprived of the pacific possession of the Spanish throne by usurpation, I am desirous at this moment that my silence should not supply the slightest shade of value to the acts of the Usurpress.

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1868.  B. Taylor, in Atlantic Monthly, XXII. Oct., 508.

  Thou, that assumest to lead,
Holding the truth and the keys of the skies,
Art the usurpress indeed,
And rulest thy sons with a sceptre of lies.

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1873.  Dixon, Two Queens, I. viii. I. 56. The Austrians … detested Isabel as a usurpress.

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