Defenestration

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(pronounced dee-fen-uh-stray-shun)  noun

Definition

1. the act of throwing a person or thing out of a window. 2. a quick and speedy removal, firing, or forcing out (as from a corporation, the military, a political party, or any other established organization).

Other Forms

Defenestrate (pronounced dee-fen-uh-strayt) verb

Main Example

• CBS has been making headlines of late, what with the sudden ouster of its CEO Les Moonves on charges of sexual harassment. The abrupt defenestration of the highly regarded and well-entrenched Moonves is testimony not only to the power of the #MeToo movement but also to the extraordinary credibility of The New Yorker’s young Ronan Farrow.

Workplace Examples

• Just between you and me, here’s how I see the situation: if we do get bought out by Carl Icahn or some other big-time investor, as is very likely, the entire mahogany row on 6th floor will be emptied out. In other words, our CEO and the dozen or so VPs and Senior VPs will be immediately defenestrated.
• Come on Lee, you don’t have to be so scared of walking into the VP’s office. I think your suggestion is absolutely brilliant, so just knock on her door when she is free and present it to her. At the most, she might be lukewarm, not evince any emotion, and simply say something like “Lee, I’ll give it a thought. Thanks!” Most certainly she is not going to throw you out from her 50th floor window, and this is where I get to use my new favorite word--she is not going to defenestrate you!”

Other Examples

• this author telling someone: “Here is my favorite story about the defenestration of a person or thing, and it involves a famous corporate exec’s determined efforts to terminate verbose and rambling office missives. In the mid-1980s, shortly after becoming Apple’s CEO, John Sculley made a public announcement that he would promptly throw out of his office window any memo that was over a page in length. That led me to joke that if anyone wanted to steal Apple’s trade secrets, all they had to do was stand below Sculley’s window.”
• this author saying during a speech: “This recent news item, that there could be over 3,000 cashierless Amazon Go stores by 2021, made me realize that the inexorable march of technology is going to lead to the mass defenestration of hundreds of thousands of grocery store employees within, say, the next decade.”
• a colleague saying laughingly: “Before the advent of broadband and stuff, when we had those dial up modems, sometimes opening a page from the Internet was so frustratingly slow on my desktop at home that once, in a fit of anger, I picked up the computer and was about to defenestrate it just when my wife entered the room thankfully preventing me from carrying out my rash action.”
• at the end of a heated debate for a congressional seat here in Texas, a supporter of one of the two candidates saying excitedly: “Our guy just demolished the other fellow...defenestrated him!”
• Fidelity shocking investors last year when it defenestrated Gavin Baker, one of its star mutual fund managers, over sexual harassment allegations
• among the numerous senior officials within the Trump administration who have been defenestrated so far for one reason or another: National Security Advisers Mike Flynn and H.R. McMaster, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Health Secretary Tom Price, EPA Administrator Tom Pruitt, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Chief Economic Advisor Gary Cohn...

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