Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To throw out of a window.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb to throw (something or someone) out of a window.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To eject or throw (someone or something) from a window; compare transfenestrate.
  • verb transitive To throw out.
  • verb computing, transitive, humorous, slang To remove a Windows operating system from a computer.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb throw through or out of the window

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from defenestration.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Back-formation from defenestration, from Latin de- ("out"), + fenestra ("window").

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Examples

Comments

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  • "If someone tries to sell you some Windows™, tell him to defenestrate himself." — Crispin Cowan

    April 11, 2007

  • "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."

    September 11, 2007

  • to throw through or out of the window; "The rebels stormed the palace and defenestrated the President"

    October 31, 2007

  • 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.

    November 1, 2007

  • 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."

    November 1, 2007

  • See my comment over at this list regarding how to fenestrate things.

    November 1, 2007

  • Yes, but can you fenestrate Prague?

    November 1, 2007

  • Only by selling Windows to Pragueians. (Praguers? Pragueites? Praguesmen? Praguese?)

    November 1, 2007

  • Pragmatists?

    November 1, 2007

  • 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.

    November 30, 2007

  • 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.

    November 30, 2007

  • Are those words all verbs in their respective languages? I think "das Fenster" just means window... right?

    November 30, 2007

  • Nouns, babe, just nouns. Escalation can be a wonderful thing.

    November 30, 2007

  • 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.

    August 12, 2008

  • 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.

    August 12, 2008

  • 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.

    August 13, 2008

  • 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.

    August 15, 2008

  • I long for the day when I get to subjectively use this word in my memoirs.

    October 1, 2008

  • Wouldn't you first have to do some defenestrating? Or will it be one of those memoirs? ;-)

    October 1, 2008

  • Ooh look! It's past the double century. Municipal celebrations in Prague!

    November 4, 2008

  • I know schadenfreude (404) has a few misspellings, but the def- count is split between this (224) and defenestration (191), total 415.

    June 2, 2009

  • Excellent observation, bilby! There are also 2 for defenestrated. I don't suppose we can count unfenestrated.

    June 3, 2009

  • If you throw someone out of a window and they crawl back in, are they then refenestrated?

    June 3, 2009

  • Yes, as opposed to undefenestrated, as discussed at unfenestrated.

    June 3, 2009

  • 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?

    June 3, 2009

  • *howls with laughter*

    June 3, 2009

  • So if they're howling with laughter they're reeseteefenestrated then?

    June 3, 2009

  • *rubs head*

    Hey! Who tossed me out the window?

    June 3, 2009

  • Sometimes it can be very difficult to make a mundane point on Wordie :-)

    June 3, 2009

  • 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.

    June 3, 2009

  • *cringing*

    June 3, 2009

  • If you throw qroqqa out of a window, are you dereferencetrating Wordie?

    June 3, 2009

  • If you through sionnach out a window are you defennecstrating?

    June 3, 2009

  • See defennecstrate.

    June 3, 2009

  • 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?

    June 3, 2009

  • defenestly!

    June 3, 2009

  • IMG/Users/ILOVEGAVIN/Desktop/emo.jpg/IMG

    defenestly!

    July 9, 2009

  • defenestly!

    July 9, 2009

  • I don't get why on it's on this page.

    August 31, 2009

  • I'm not entirely sure either...but maybe it has something to do with defenestrating blades?

    August 31, 2009

  • I don't get why it's so friggin' HUGE on this page.

    August 31, 2009

  • Can it be removed? It's rather vile.

    August 31, 2009

  • You could ask user yo.

    September 1, 2009

  • Why Is It Still Here??

    September 7, 2009

  • 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."

    September 13, 2010

  • I'd like to defenestrate my brother.

    April 3, 2017

  • To throw out a window

    December 15, 2020