unbishop

English

Etymology

From Middle English *unbishopen (suggested by past participle unbishoped, unbisschoped), equivalent to un- +‎ bishop.

Verb

unbishop (third-person singular simple present unbishops, present participle unbishoping, simple past and past participle unbishoped)

1. (transitive) To deprive (a city etc.) of a bishop.
2. (transitive) To deprive (a clergyman) of episcopal dignity or rights.
   • 1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

     Then he unbishops himself.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “unbishop”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)