overthrow
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: From Middle English overthrowen, equivalent to over- + throw. Compare Dutch overdraaien, German überdrehen, Old English oferweorpan (“to overthrow”).
For the noun sense, compare Middle English overthrow, overthrowe (“destruction, downfall”), from the verb.
Base: throw
Affixes: over-
Inflected forms:
form: overthrows
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: overthrowing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: overthrew
pos: verb
tags: past
form: overthrown
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: overthrows
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To bring about the downfall of (a government, etc.), especially by force; to usurp.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I hate the current government, but not enough to want to overthrow them.
Here's Gloſter, a Foe to Citizens, / One that ſtill motions Warre, and neuer Peace, / O're-charging your free Purſes with large Fines; / That ſeeks to ouerthrow Religion, / Becauſe he is Protector of the Realme; […]
Wounded and overthrown, the Britons continued their resistance, clung round the legs of the Norman steeds, and cumbered their advance; while their brethren, thrusting with pikes, proved every joint and crevice of the plate and mail, or grappling with the men-at-arms, strove to pull them from their horses by main force, or beat them down with their bills and Welch hooks.
Wickedness often overthrows the health of the sinner. Go to the hospital, and see how many have ruined their health by their course of life. That drunkard. That glutton. That debauchee. Nine-tenths of the suffering from disease originates in the wickedness of the sinner.
Violence directed specifically at the regime in power, such as coups d'etat also often fail to attain the threshold of civil wars. While such conflicts often involve the armed forces of the society, coups d'etat are more explicitly extralegal executive transfers aimed at overthrowing the sitting regime's leaders.
“America voted for mass deportations,” White House adviser Stephen Miller posted Wednesday on X. He added that the demonstrators in Los Angeles are “trying to overthrow the results of the election.”
gloss: To throw down to the ground, to overturn.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: And he [Jesus] made a ſcourge off ſmale cordes / and drave thē all out off the temple / bothe ſhepe and oxen / ãd powred doune the changers money / and overthrue their tables.
Pittacus was a wiſe and valiant man, but his wife overthrew the Table when he had invited his friends: upon which the good man to excuſe her incivility and his own miſfortune, ſaid, That every man had one evil, and he was moſt happy that had but that alone; […]
I have no parents, friends, nor brothers left; / By ſtern Achilles all of life bereft. / Then when the walls of Thebes he overthrew, / His fatal hand my royal father ſlew; / He ſlew Aetion, but deſpoil'd him not; / Nor in his hate the funeral rites forgot; […]
[W]hen they have found the Trees on which they [the elk] lean, they cut and ſaw them, ſo that when the Elk comes, he overthrows the Tree and falls with it; and being unable to riſe, is ſo taken alive.
gloss: A removal, especially of a ruler or government, by force or threat of force; usurpation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Once more I come to know of thee King Harry, / If for thy Ranſome thou wilt now compound, / Before thy moſt aſſured Ouerthrow: […]
But Judge Livingstone decided that no resistence to law, however extensive or violent, is treason if overthrow of the government is not its object.
What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!
[Edward B.] Marks believed that [Milton] Cohen had paid spies everywhere to keep him up-to-date about impending political overthrows in the countries where he needed to stop, as he always escaped fine and dandy from every revolution he had to face.
[T]he narrator's football team has recently returned triumphant from Buenos Aires after winning the Copa Infantil Evita (Evita Youth Cup), part of the Juegos Evita (Evita Games) that were established in 1948 for children across Argentina, and which ran until the overthrow of Juan Perón in 1955
gloss: An act of throwing something to the ground; an overturning.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
rare
uncountable
Derived words: overthrowable
overthrowal
overthrower
Translations: