Other forms: overthrown, overthrew, overthrowing, overthrows
To overthrow is to remove a ruler or a government by force. Overthrow the regime, overthrown in a coup, plot to overthrow.
It means removal by force or by mass action rather than by election, and it applies to governments, monarchs and, figuratively, to established ideas — a theory overthrown by new evidence. The noun is the same word: the overthrow of the government. Note that in cricket an overthrow is a run scored from a wild return, which is a completely separate technical sense.
1verboverthrowTo remove a ruler or a government by force.
“The army tried to overthrow the president, but the plot failed.”
2nounremovalSuch a removal.
“The overthrow of the king led to years of civil war.”
overthrow is a forcible removal.
Middle English overthrowen is over plus throw, and it first meant to knock down physically. Old English used oferweorpan, built the same way, and the modern political sense grew from the literal one.
Middle English
overthrowen
English, today
overthrow
From Middle English overthrowen, equivalent to over + throw. Compare Dutch overdraaien, German überdrehen, Old English oferweorpan (“to overthrow”). For the noun sense, compare Middle English overthrow, overthrowe (“destruction, downfall”), from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA