Overthrow

Part of speech: verb, noun

Pronunciation: /əʊvəˈθɹəʊ/

Definitions

1. To remove a leader or government from power by force or through organized resistance
2. To forcibly take down an authority or regime while also disrupting the established order through insurrection or rebellion
3. The act of displacing a governing body by violent means or through systematic opposition, resulting in a power vacuum

Etymology: Before it meant toppling a government, "overthrow" was a plainly physical word: to throw something over, or to knock something down. The verb is built from "over" and "throw," and English speakers had been combining those two words in this sense since Middle English, with Old English "oferweorpan" already meaning "to overthrow" in the same spirit. The image is almost literal. Something is hurled across and lands on its back, and the political sense grew naturally out of that picture of a power being flung down. The noun followed the verb. Middle English speakers used "overthrow" for destruction or downfall, so the idea of a collapse came first and the idea of a deliberate seizure of power came later. Dutch "overdraaien" and German "überdrehen" show that other Germanic languages built the same kind of compound from the same pieces, though their own senses have drifted in different directions.

Synonyms: topple, overturn, subvert, dethrone, upend

Antonyms: establish, support, maintain, uphold, preserve