defrock

present singular third person defrocks · participle present defrocking · participle past defrocked · past defrocked

1. literallyTo divest of a frock.

   Synonyms: disfrock, unfrock

2. figurativelyTo formally remove the rights and authority of a member of the clergy.

   The defrocked priest may no longer perform rites.

   1 more example

   The Vatican has defrocked the anti-abortion US priest Frank Pavone for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” as well as “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

   2022 December 18, AP, “Anti-abortion US priest Frank Pavone defrocked by Vatican”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: disfrock, unfrock, unordain

3. broadlyTo 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