autodefenestration

      English

      Etymology

      auto- +‎ defenestration

      Noun

      autodefenestration (uncountable)

      1. (rare, nonce word) The act of hurling oneself from a window.
        • 1986, Rich Relations (in New York Magazine, volume 19, number 18)
          She climbs out on a window ledge and threatens autodefenestration if the marriage isn't contracted, and is soon joined on the ledge by Jill.
        • 2002, Ian Lauchlan, Russian hide-and-seek: the tsarist secret police in St. Petersburg, 1906-1914‎
          Ipana, a leading practitioner of feline-autodefenestration, also helped, I think.
        • 1995, Denis Ashton Warner, Wake me if there's trouble
          ...Lindesay had the misfortune to fall out of a window, which elicited from the Times a memorable cable, which said simply: 'Cease autodefenestration.'
      Last modified on 16 June 2013, at 21:42