unmitreunmiterv.
/(ˌ)ʌnˈmʌɪtə/, U.S. /ˌənˈmaɪdər/ Chiefly Christian Church. Now rare.
transitive. To remove a mitre (mitre n.1) from the head of (someone); to deprive of the ecclesiastical rank (esp. of bishop) represented by a mitre. Hence (figurative): to remove from office, to depose.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > worship > sacrament > order > ordination > unfrocking > unfrock [verb (transitive)] > divest of symbol of office
unmitre1598
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Dimitriare, to vnmitre.
1641 ‘P. A.’ in Recantation Prelate of Canterbury (verso title page) Whilst thou un-mytr'st Prelats, lo! we bow To gather gracious Garlands for thy brow.
1641 W. Mure Caledons Complaint 4 That wee, those limbs of Antichrist abjure, Unmitring monsters that did court the Whorre Of Rome.
1675 W. Penn England's Present Interest ii. sig. C4 [He] hop't..to inculcate that Doctrine which should un-Mitre the Pope.
a1693 W. Sancroft Occas. Serm. (1694) 33 Therefore the twelfth Council of Toledo unmitered one Convildus, formerly an Abbot in a little Village, and dissolved the Bishoprick.
1787 A. Griffith Observ. Bishop of Cloyne's Pamphlet 29 Wherefore then your apprehensions lest the Dissenters should unmitre you?
1863 Christian Examiner July 104 You can unfrock a priest, but you cannot unmitre a bishop.
1895 K. P. Wormeley tr. A. Dumas Company of Jehu I. xx. 226 If Sieyès was unfrocked, Talleyrand was unmitred.
1907 D. N. Lees Scenes & Shrines in Tuscany xvi. 235 The Archbishop..had been dressed and undressed, mitred and un-mitred, until he must have been worn out.
Derivatives
ΚΠ
1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 30 The unmitring of a Bishop.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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