Unseat

//(ˌ)ʌnˈsiːt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To dislodge or remove (someone) from a seat, especially on horseback. transitive

    "The frightened horse reared up and unseated its rider."

  2. 2
    dislodge from one's seat, as from a horse wordnet
  3. 3
    To remove (someone) from an office or position, especially a political one; to dethrone. figuratively, transitive

    "After having lost her seat to a Tory, she succeeded in unseating him in the next general election."

  4. 4
    remove from political office wordnet
  5. 5
    To cause (something) to be removed or replaced in its role; to displace, to overturn. figuratively, transitive

    "The Michelson-Morley experiment prompted scientists to unseat their belief in the luminiferous aether."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To upset the composure of (someone); to astound, to shock, to unsettle. figuratively, transitive

    "The Matrix (1999) utterly unseated audiences around the world with its mind-blowing plot twist."

  2. 7
    To come off or out of a seat. intransitive

    "We replaced the screws, since the old ones unseated too easily."

Synonyms

All synonyms
oustbreakbringbuckbuck offbust

Example

More examples

"We hope the challenger will unseat the incumbent."

Etymology

From un- (suffix meaning ‘not’) + seat (“to provide with a place to sit”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.