defenestrate

present singular third person defenestrates · participle present defenestrating · participle past defenestrated · past defenestrated

1. transitiveTo eject or throw (someone or something) from or through a window.

   I defenestrated a clock to see if time flies!

   1998 September 25, Lane Smith, quoted in "TFK Q&A: Lane Smith and Jon Scieszka", in Time for Kids

2. transitiveTo throw out; to remove or dismiss (someone) from a position of power or authority.

   Ever since he helped to defenestrate Richard Nixon in 1974, Mr Woodward has been a sort of super-reporter ...

   2001, The Economist, volume 381, numbers 8498-8501, page 42

   2 more examples

   The cultural historians of science 'feel the need to defenestrate science, or at least take it off its pedestal' (Pumfrey. Rossi & Slawinski 1991. p. 3).

   1998, Barry J. Fraser, Kenneth George Tobin, International Handbook of Science Education, volume 2

   According to the guidebooks, they do it so strenuously that women would very much like to defenestrate the custom.

   2004, Mary Carey, Kim Berquist, Writing from a Small Country: Anthology of the Creative Writing Club, Luxembourg

3. humorousslangtransitivecomputingTo remove a Windows operating system from (a computer).

   This posting was written on a Windows 95 PC, Defenestrate it immediately. Install Linux. :-)

   1998 December 17, Darren Salt <news@youmustbejoking.demon.com.uk>, "Re: Coding speccy games in the good 'ole days", message-ID <48B60EA729%news@youmustbejoking.demon.com.uk>, comp.sys.sinclair, Usenet http://google.com/group/comp.sys.sinclair/msg/8b00481a8be589d2

   2 more examples

   ◦ Enable one-click uninstalls of unwanted OS and application features with a Defenestrate icon.

   2001 July 21, "Packet Rat" (pseudonym), "Judge Rat calls for a Microsoft defenestration", on GCN: Government Computer News

   2007 May 16, Richard Stallman, speech, Free Software and Beyond: Human Rights in the Use of Software and Other Published Works, Now of course people who want freedom shouldn't use Windows at all, you've got to defenestrate your computer, which means either you throw Windows out of the computer, or you throw the computer out the window.