defrocking

Verb

defrock (third-person singular simple present defrocks, present participle defrocking, simple past and past participle defrocked)

1. (literally) To divest of a frock.

   Synonyms:

   disfrock, unfrock

2. (figuratively) To formally remove the rights and authority of a member of the clergy.
   • The defrocked priest may no longer perform rites.

   Synonyms:

   disfrock, unfrock, unordain

3. (broadly) To formally remove the rights and authority of someone, e.g. a government official or a medical practitioner.
   • There are refugees and black marketers, defrocked bankers and resistance fighters, gamblers, floozies, French colonial policemen, American and Spanish entertainers, and, eventually, Nazi officers (who in reality never set foot in Casablanca).2012 March 19, David Denby, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s: “Casablanca” on the Big Screen”, in The New Yorker