defenestration
noun
Jane Bryant Quinn
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These days, defenestration—from the Latin fenestra, meaning "window"—is often used to describe the forceful removal of someone from public office or from some other advantageous position. History's most famous defenestration, however, was one in which the tossing out the window was quite literal. On May 23, 1618, two imperial regents were found guilty of violating certain guarantees of religious freedom and were thrown out the window of Prague Castle. The men survived the 50-foot tumble into the moat, but the incident marked the beginning of the Bohemian resistance to Hapsburg rule that eventually led to the Thirty Years' War and came to be known as the Defenestration of Prague. It was, in fact, the third such historical defenestration in Prague, but it was the first to be referred to as such by English speakers.
Examples of defenestration in a Sentence
Tevi Troy, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Feb. 2025
But this defenestration was not the end of Hu’s story.
—Foreign Affairs, 1 Jan. 2025
Four former Intel directors advocated this route in a Fortune op-ed just weeks before Gelsinger’s defenestration.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2024
In May, two months after Porter’s defenestration, a pro-crypto bill came up for a vote in the House.
—Charles Duhigg, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024
See All Example Sentences for defenestration
Cite this Entry
“Defenestration.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/defenestration. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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