1. Practicing usury; taking illegal or exorbitant interest for the use of money; as, a usurious person.
2. Partaking of usury; containing or involving usury; as, a usurious contract.
— U*su"ri*ous*ly, adv. — U*su"ri*ous*ness, n.
Usurp
(U*surp") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Usurped ; p. pr. & vb. n. Usurping.] [L. usurpare, usurpatum,
to make use of, enjoy, get possession of, usurp; the first part of usurpare is akin to usus use (see Use,
n.): cf. F. usurper.] To seize, and hold in possession, by force, or without right; as, to usurp a throne; to
usurp the prerogatives of the crown; to usurp power; to usurp the right of a patron is to oust or dispossess
him.
Alack, thou dost usurp authority.
Shak.
Another revolution, to get rid of this illegitimate and usurped government, would of course be perfectly
justifiable.
Burke. Usurp is applied to seizure and use of office, functions, powers, rights, etc.; it is not applied to common
dispossession of private property.
Syn. — To arrogate; assume; appropriate.
Usurp
(U*surp"), v. i. To commit forcible seizure of place, power, functions, or the like, without right; to
commit unjust encroachments; to be, or act as, a usurper.
The parish churches on which the Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped.
Evelyn.
And now the Spirits of the Mind
Are busy with poor Peter Bell;
Upon the rights of visual sense
Usurping,
with a prevalence
More terrible than magic spell.
Wordsworth. Usurpant
(U*surp"ant) a. [L. usurpans, p. pr.] Usurping; encroaching. [Obs.] Gauden.
Usurpation
(U`sur*pa"tion) n. [L. usurpatio making use, usurpation: cf. F. usurpation.]
1. The act of usurping, or of seizing and enjoying; an authorized, arbitrary assumption and exercise of
power, especially an infringing on the rights of others; specifically, the illegal seizure of sovereign power; —
commonly used with of, also used with on or upon; as, the usurpation of a throne; the usurpation of
the supreme power.
He contrived their destruction, with the usurpation of the regal dignity upon him.
Sir T. More.
A law [of a State] which is a usurpation upon the general government.
O. Ellsworth.
Manifest usurpation on the rights of other States.
D. Webster. Usurpation, in a peculiar sense, formerly denoted the absolute ouster and dispossession of the patron of
a church, by a stranger presenting a clerk to a vacant benefice, who us thereupon admitted and instituted.
2. Use; usage; custom. [Obs.] Bp. Pearson.
Usurpatory
(U*surp"a*to*ry) a. [L. usurpatorius.] Marked by usurpation; usurping. [R.]
Usurpature
(U*surp"a*ture) n. Usurpation. [R.] "Beneath man's usurpature." R. Browning.
