Dictionary

disenthrone en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des-bor. ▲ Latin dis-bor. Middle English dis- English dis- English enthrone English disenthrone From dis- + enthrone.

Meanings

1. To remove (someone) from their position as monarch; to deprive of a position of supremacy.
   • […] the step taken two or three months after the battle of Leuktra […] of causing the peace, which had already been sworn at Sparta in the preceding month of June, to be re-sworn under the presidency and guarantee of Athens, by cities binding themselves mutually to each other as defensive allies of Athens; thus silently disenthroning Sparta and taking her place. 1852, George Grote, chapter 79, in History of Greece, volume 10, London: John Murray, page 335:
   • Honora moved with a slow hauteur in her black gown, looking like a disenthroned queen, and as she walked down the train aisle Kate thought of Marie Antoinette. 1914, Elia W. Peattie, chapter 17, in The Precipice, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 214:
   • For many youths, magical feats represent one of the most intriguing possibilities of Eastern disciplines. They offer the hope of beating science at its own game, on its own territory. The self-cure of cancer is such a case: how satisfying it would be to disenthrone all the oncologists in a single blow! 1974, Harrison Pope, chapter 7, in The Road East: America’s New Discovery of Eastern Wisdom, Boston: Beacon Press, page 115:
   • […] to disinthrone the King of Heav’n / We warr […] 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 229-230:
2. To move (someone or something) from a desirable location or place of honour.
   • There were fruits of every kind; clusters of luscious grapes, quinces, pears, apples and pomegranates, long strings of figs, boxes of dates, and honey-dew melons sweeter than honey; all would be disenthroned from their lofty pantry dominions from which for months they had been tempting the yearning eyes of children, and placed before all to have and to hold until they could no more. 1921, Constantine M. Panunzio, chapter 1, in The Soul of an Immigrant, New York: Macmillan, pages 25–26:
   • She remembered how she had so often disenthroned her father from his favorite chair for parlor dates […] 1958, William Humphrey, chapter 42, in Home from the Hill, New York: Permabooks, published 1959, page 224:
3. (figuratively) To remove (something) from a position of power or paramount importance.
   • 1844, Benjamin Disraeli, speech given at the Manchester Athenæum Grand Soirée, 3 October, 1844, in Addresses Delivered by Lord John Manners […] B. Disraeli […] G. Sydney Smythe, London: Hayward and Adam, 1845, p. 18, As civilization has gradually progressed it has equalised the physical qualities of man. Instead of the strong arm it is the strong head that is now the moving principle of society. You have disenthroned Force, and placed on her high seat Intelligence […]
   • Marxism-Leninism will have to be disenthroned as party orthodoxy from which it is heretical to deviate […] 1987, Robert C. Tucker, Political Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev, New York: Norton, Conclusion, p. 203:
   • No other than these simple words were possible to her; and even these were too much for her in a state of emotion where her proud secrecy was disenthroned: as the child-like sentences fell from her lips they re-acted on her like a picture of her own helplessness, and she could not check the sob which sent the large tears to her eyes. 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Book 8, Chapter 65:

Forms

Deriveds

disenthronement

Synonyms

depose · uncrown · discrown · dethrone · unking · unthrone