1. trans. To strip (an ecclesiastic) of his frock as a sign of degradation; hence, to deprive of priestly function or office. Also Unfrocking vbl. sb.
The second quotation is the only source for the common attribution of the term to Queen Elizabeth.
1644. Milton, Areop., 30. It is not the unfrocking of a Priest … that will make us a happy Nation.
a. 1750[?]. Forged Letter Q. Eliz., in Ann. Reg., Char. (1761), 15/1. If you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by ——, I will immediately unfrock you.
1817. T. L. Peacock, Melincourt, I. 10. He took especial care that this … should not reach the ears of his bishop, who would infallibly have unfrocked him.
1857. Trollope, Barchester T., III. xvii. 296. Clergymen have been unfrocked for less than what you have been guilty of.
1884. Nonconf. & Indep., 22 May, 505/3. Mr. Justice Stephen truly remarked, there was no power to unfrock him.
refl. 1822. Q. Rev., XXVIII. 41. Who had been first a Dominican friar, then, having unfrocked himself, a gardener.
1855. L. Hunt, Old Court Suburb, I. 150. A man with a club-foot, who had also been a prelate, but had unfrocked himself to become a statesman.
absol. 1808. E. S. Barrett, Miss-led General, 85. He had unfrocked, that is, given over the cure of souls in this world.
2. transf. To unmask or expose.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., VI. xxix. 74. Spain had the monkish Calderon…. There no poet like Molière unfrocked hypocrisy.
Hence Unfrocked ppl. a.
1794. Matthias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 44. I love no atheist French Bishops, nor unfrocked grammarians in England.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages, 357. The unfrocked priest would of course be amenable to lay tribunals in future.
1880. Dixon, Windsor, III. xxiv. 245. On the unfrocked priest attempting flight, he … locked him in the Tower.
