Dictionary

usurpress en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English usurper Late Latin -issader. Old French -essebor. Middle English -esse English -ess English usurpress From usurper + -ess.

Meanings

1. (rare) A female usurper.
   • Sophia, who was anxious not to be reckoned a usurpress and who wished to keep up appearances, held two thrones and two crowns on behalf of Ivan and Peter. 1963, Victor Alexandrov, The Kremlin: Nerve-centre of Russian History, page 147:
   • I have a number of these. They were issued in March 1893 and advertised the journal "The Jacobite", organ of the Legitimist Jacobite League. They are listed in "Scottish Stamp and Label Catalogue 1970" and subsequently illustrated in "Scottish Stamp News" and "Cinderella Philatelist" There are used covers in existence which show the usurpress stamp upside down with the 'stamp' of Queen Mary IV and III alongside. 2004, Keith Smith, “Re: A Jacobite Stamp”, in alt.talk.royalty (Usenet):
   • This yet may dash the Marriage; and Leucasia That bold Usurpress of my Bed shall miss Of being saluted Queen to night howe'r. 17C, William Cartwright, reproduced in 1951 in The Plays and Poems of William Cartwright, p421
   • I would "attend" Auschwitz with invisible resources that vastly increased the chances of survival, resources that included even my linguistic abilities, since German was my mother tongue, so to speak, and French my vernacular, while English was the language I had spoken with my brother and studied successfully in school. Finally, Russian was the rule with my father, sister, and the usurpress, and I was literally at home in it. 2001, Paul Steinberg, Speak You Also: A survivor's Reckoning, page 40:
   • Madame Le Crampon was the absolute ruler of this machine;--her mother had ceased to hold almost any relation to it! She had abdicated in favour of that hard and implacable usurpress. 1863, Emma Robinson, Mauleverer's divorce: A Story of Woman's Wrongs, page 59:
   • 1868, Anonymous, Pandora (poem), The Atlantic Monthly, Vol 22, Issue 132, archived here 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.

Forms

Synonyms

usurpatrix