unsceptre
English
Etymology
From un- + sceptre.
Verb
unsceptre (third-person singular simple present unsceptres, present participle unsceptring, simple past and past participle unsceptred)
- To deprive of a sceptre; to deprive of the status of monarch or of authority.
- Synonyms: decrown, depose, descepter, dethrone, discrown, disenthrone, uncrown, unking, unthrone
- 1634, William Wood, “Of Their Kings Government, and Subjects Obedience”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], OCLC 837516736, 2nd part (Of the Indians, […]), page 79:
- It is the cuſtome for their Kings to inherite, the ſonne alvvayes taking the Kingdome after his fathers death. If there be no ſonne, then the Queene rules; if no Queene, the next to the blood-royall, vvho comes in othervvise, is but counted an uſurping intruder, and if his faire carriage beare him not out the better, they vvill ſoone unſcepter him.
- 1818–1819, John Keats, “Hyperion, a Fragment”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, OCLC 927360557, page 146:
- Upon the sodden ground / His [the god Saturn’s] old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead, / Unsceptred; and his realmless eyes were closed; […]
- 1870, John Leicester Warren, “Pandora” in Rehearsals, London: Strahan, p. 23:
- Ye hate, shall hatred then unsceptre Zeus, / Or anger empty any throne in heaven?
- 1967, John Cairncross (translator), Berenice by Jean Racine, Act 3, Scene 1, in Andromache and Other Plays, Penguin, 1982, p. 255:
- I can make kings and unsceptre them, / Yet cannot give my heart to whom I choose.
Alternative forms
- unscepter
See also
- unsceptred (adjective)
Anagrams
- unrespect