Word.ws English Dictionary

upsurp

upsurp is the misspelling of usurp.

Meaning of usurp

Verb

usurp (third-person singular simple present usurps, present participle usurping, simple past and past participle usurped)

  1. To seize and hold or use (powers, an office, a coat of arms, a right or copyright, etc) from another, without right (usually by illegitimate means).
    • [S]o he dies,
      But soon revives, Death over him no power
      Shall long usurp […]1674, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 326
  2. To take the place of someone or something else; to supplant.
    • But if now / You ſhould (as cruell fathers do) proclame / Your right, and Tyrant like uſurp the glory / Of my peculiar honours, not deriv'd / From ſucceſſary, but purchas'd with my bloud, / Then I muſt ſtand firſt Champion for my ſelfe, / Againſt all interpoſers.c. 1619–1623, John Ford, “The Lawes of Candy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 52, column...
  3. (obsolete) To make use of.
    • "[…] especially considering that even Matter it self, in which they tumble and wallow, which they feel with their hands and usurp with all their Senses […]"1653, Henry More, “appendix”, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC

Questions about upsurp

What is upsurp the misspelling of?
Upsurp is the misspelling of usurp.

Words near upsurp in the dictionary

  1. upsurgence
  2. upsurgences
  3. upsurges
  4. upsurging
  5. upsurgings
  6. upsurp
  7. upswallow
  8. upswallowed
  9. upswallowing
  10. upswallows
  11. upswam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: upsurp (page history and authors); usurp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “upsurp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/upsurp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.