| usurp | 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) Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| usurpation | Assumption of pacemaker function of the heart by a subsidiary focus as a result of its own increased automaticity; e.g., accelerated junctional pacemaker takes command when it exceeds the sinus rate. Origin: L. Usurpo, pp. -atus, to seise (05 Mar 2000) |