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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To throw out of a window.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To eject or throw (someone or something) from a window; compare term.
  2. v. To throw out.
  3. v. To stop (a computer) from using the Windows operating system.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. to throw (something or someone) out of a window.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. throw through or out of the window

Etymologies

  1. Back-formation from defenestration.

Examples

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Lists

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  • KeriLynn Engel http://bit.ly/QiCBq: "A word invented for one incident: the "Defenestration of Prague," May 21, 1618, when two Catholic deputies to the Bohemian national assembly and a secretary were tossed out the window (into a moat) of the castle of Hradshin by Protestant radicals. It marked the start of the Thirty Years War." Sep 12, 2010
  • PossibleUnderscore Why Is It Still Here?? Sep 7, 2009
  • Prolagus You could ask user yo. Aug 31, 2009
  • yarb Can it be removed? It's rather vile. Aug 31, 2009
  • chained_bear I don't get why it's so friggin' HUGE on this page. Aug 31, 2009
  • PossibleUnderscore I'm not entirely sure either...but maybe it has something to do with defenestrating blades? Aug 31, 2009
  • bilby I don't get why on it's on this page. Aug 31, 2009
  • yo Photobucket


    defenestly! Jul 9, 2009
  • yo IMG/Users/ILOVEGAVIN/Desktop/emo.jpg/IMG

    defenestly! Jul 9, 2009
  • milosrdenstvi defenestly! Jun 3, 2009
  • chained_bear AWWW!!! *weejies* I totally forgot about that picture!! :)

    So, if you defenestrate someone who then crawls back in and becomes refenestrated, and this person brings a landscape (etc., etc.) and is therefore rescreefenestrated, and perhaps this person himself then throws qroqqa and sionnach out the window, and Wordie and sionnach then become dereferencestrated and defennecstrated, respectively, but the original defenestrator is then flung out the window and accidentally defenecastrated and does not attempt to climb back in, and all the while reesetee is reeseteefenestrating, then, is it faster to Paris, or by bus? Jun 3, 2009
  • bilby See defennecstrate. Jun 3, 2009
  • mollusque If you through sionnach out a window are you defennecstrating? Jun 3, 2009
  • Prolagus If you throw qroqqa out of a window, are you dereferencetrating Wordie? Jun 3, 2009
  • reesetee *cringing* Jun 3, 2009
  • skipvia If the poor chap being tossed out of the window has the misfortune to lose his...ummm...family jewels to an inconveniently placed shard of broken glass, is he then defenecastrated?

    I don't imagine he'd attempt to crawl back in. Jun 3, 2009
  • bilby Sometimes it can be very difficult to make a mundane point on Wordie :-) Jun 3, 2009
  • reesetee *rubs head*

    Hey! Who tossed me out the window? Jun 3, 2009
  • gangerh So if they're howling with laughter they're reeseteefenestrated then? Jun 3, 2009
  • reesetee *howls with laughter* Jun 2, 2009
  • chained_bear If you throw someone out a window and they crawl back in and happen to bring with them a landscape of broken rock fragments, are they then rescreefenestrated? Jun 2, 2009
  • mollusque Yes, as opposed to undefenestrated, as discussed at unfenestrated. Jun 2, 2009
  • skipvia If you throw someone out of a window and they crawl back in, are they then refenestrated? Jun 2, 2009
  • mollusque Excellent observation, bilby! There are also 2 for defenestrated. I don't suppose we can count unfenestrated. Jun 2, 2009
  • bilby I know schadenfreude (404) has a few misspellings, but the def- count is split between this (224) and defenestration (191), total 415. Jun 2, 2009
  • sionnach Ooh look! It's past the double century. Municipal celebrations in Prague! Nov 3, 2008
  • reesetee Wouldn't you first have to do some defenestrating? Or will it be one of those memoirs? ;-) Oct 1, 2008
  • wordwench I long for the day when I get to subjectively use this word in my memoirs. Sep 30, 2008
  • bilby If you've ever lived in the historic centre of a European town/city that hasn't changed much since the late Middle Ages, this word makes more sense. The staircases are narrow, often winding. In many cases it's just easier to get stuff to/from an apartment through the window rather than via the stairs. There was also a great tradition of just heaving things out the window, after which they became somebody else's problem, eg. nightsoil. It's hard to imagine life in such places without a word like defenestrate. Aug 15, 2008
  • rebeca I like this word, but I didn't relate it with Russia until I read the comments listed here. Defenestration. Bears. Vodka. - Wordie is putting dangerous ideas in my mind. Aug 15, 2008
  • super-logos Defenestration is not in vogue in the US. I suppose if there were a fire or divorce proceedings, it is possible. We lack the good old-fashioned chaos of a Russia or Europe where this type of thing gets more play. I cannot visualize this word without smoke, riot police, mobs, and Molotov cocktails. Aug 13, 2008
  • gangerh Weird town yours, logos. I mean, it's surely normal to throw second floor furniture from a second floor window if you want to defenestrate it. If someone wanted to use the first floor window or, insanely, the sixteenth floor window instead then asylum, yes. Aug 12, 2008
  • super-logos In my town, a man defenestrated all of the second floor furniture from the second floor windows and was hauled off to the regional asylum. Aug 11, 2008
  • bilby Nouns, babe, just nouns. Escalation can be a wonderful thing. Nov 30, 2007
  • chained_bear Are those words all verbs in their respective languages? I think "das Fenster" just means window... right? Nov 30, 2007
  • bilby Like this word. But it's over-listed here so I won't join in. With finestra (Italian), finetre (French) and Fenster (German), it seems there's a grand European tradition of chucking people out of windows. Nov 30, 2007
  • laiane I, too, learned this word in relation to Prague. I first encountered it a travel guide (The Rough Guide series, I'm sure). It talked about if you stood at a certain spot in the Castle you could "contemplate the trajectory" of the advisors when they were defenestrated. Nov 30, 2007
  • uselessness Pragmatists? Nov 1, 2007
  • cathari Only by selling Windows to Pragueians. (Praguers? Pragueites? Praguesmen? Praguese?) Nov 1, 2007
  • chained_bear Yes, but can you fenestrate Prague? Nov 1, 2007
  • cathari See my comment over at this list regarding how to fenestrate things. Oct 31, 2007
  • chained_bear I had a theatre professor who told me the story of a dare--I don't know if this is a current, ongoing dare, or happened once in, say, the '60s--in which actors in the Royal Shakespeare Company had to work into their performance a certain phrase without throwing off their lines or the play's action.

    The phrase was "defenestration of Prague." Oct 31, 2007
  • uselessness There's a great scene in A Beautiful Mind where Charles, the "prodigal roommate," defenestrates the desk of a collegiate John Nash. The best part is (not to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it) discovering what that scene really means later on. Oct 31, 2007
  • jeffazi to throw through or out of the window; "The rebels stormed the palace and defenestrated the President" Oct 31, 2007
  • sblowes "The monster, in his consternation,
    Demonstrates defenestration,
    And runs and runs and runs and runs away.
    Rid of the pest,
    I now can rest,
    Thanks to my best friend, who saved the day." Sep 10, 2007
  • snowsim "If someone tries to sell you some Windows™, tell him to defenestrate himself." — Crispin Cowan Apr 10, 2007

‘defenestrate’ has been looked up 3579 times, loved by 43 people, added to 255 lists, commented on 47 times, and has a Scrabble score of 16.