Thesaurus results for USURPING

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 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 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 One of the things that's gone really wrong in America is this gas station/convenience store/fast food restaurant that is usurping small town America. —

Clare Mulroy, USA Today, 26 Mar. 2026 By January 2025, Szczesny had become manager Hansi Flick’s No 1 choice in goal, putting together a string of solid performances and usurping Inaki Pena in the role. —

Pol Ballús, New York Times, 21 Mar. 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 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 Over time, her biological daughters would number in the thousands, usurping the colony until none of the original species remained. —

CNN Money, 17 Nov. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for usurping

Verb

Bianco also faces scrutiny for seizing more than 650,000 election ballots in what critics call a baseless fraud investigation.

— Hailey Wang, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2026
Four protesters are suing to stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from seizing DNA samples from Americans arrested while peacefully protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 7 May 2026