Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To exclude from a group. See Synonyms at blackball.
- v. To banish by ostracism, as in ancient Greece.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To exile by ostracism; banish by popular vote, as persons dreaded for their influence or power were banished by the ancient Athenians. See ostracism, 1.
- Hence To banish from society; put under the ban; exclude from public or private favor.
- Also spelled ostracise.
Wiktionary
- v. To exclude (a person) from society or from a community, by not communicating with them or by refusing to acknowledge their presence; to refuse to talk to or associate with; to shun.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Gr. Antiq.) To exile by ostracism; to banish by a popular vote, as at Athens.
- v. To banish from society, by a general consent; to exclude from social, political, or private favor; to exclude from conversation or friendship; to shun. A person may be
ostracized by a formal vote or by a widespread but informal agreement.
WordNet 3.0
- v. avoid speaking to or dealing with
- v. expel from a community or group
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek ὀστρακίζω (ostrakizō, "I ostracize, banish by voting with pot shards"), from ὄστρακον (ostrakon, "clay pot"). (Wiktionary)
- Greek ostrakizein, from ostrakon, shell, potsherd (from the potsherds used as ballots in voting for ostracism); see ost- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“since it's your duty to ostracize and bake, _ostracize_ and _bake_, and be done with your ridiculous fancies.”
“Finally you understand the vocabulary word ostracize.”
“The group had said it would "ostracize" Ingersoll for its machinery sales in Iran.”
The Wall Street Journal: Ingersoll Bars Units From Sales to Iran
“The group had said it would "ostracize" Ingersoll-Rand for its machinery sales into Iran.”
The Wall Street Journal: Ingersoll-Rand Bars Subsidiaries From Selling to Iran
“Those who are will treat me as become gentlemen, as they do, and those who are not I will thank if they will "ostracize" me, for if they don't I will certainly "ostracize" them.”
“ostracize" originated in 1649, after the KJV was written; ἐκβάλλω is best translated as”
“We leave them and each other "flat" when we ostracize only of those who commit the bad actions, while we refrain from realizing how often we succumb to lying or cruelty or negligence by not helping the people who mistreat, who fall, who have blemishes on their behavior.”
“Mr. Kim and his younger sister spent much of their teenage years worried that their father would ostracize them and favor their half-siblings born of a later wife, according to accounts from relatives of the Kim family who escaped the country.”
“And a shocking number of families—Christians as much as Muslims, in my experience—would ostracize sons or daughters who dared to fall in love outside their sect.”
“People can “express themselves” by waiving swastikas around; I can yell at them for this, ostracize them, and convince others that it should be socially unacceptable.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ostracize’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1826 more...
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Chelsea's list
acedia, braggadocio, abnegation, equanimity, flibbertigibbet, edentulous, debonair, hypnotic, pococurante, logorrhea, euonym, feckless and 23 more...
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wajo22's list
signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, pre-terrestrial, antemundane,
antemundane, signation, genuflection, precosmic, pretemporal, precreative, pre-hexameral, preplanetary, keeperess, trichotillomania, deerstalker, danseur and 99 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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catinthehat345's List
compere, reticle, colophon, miasma, eldritch, raconteur, plectrum, poltroon, vestibular, pastiche, cravat, acumen and 179 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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MoneyBall
gutted, ostracize, leper, cagey, curb, specter, lurking, bunt
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Dictionary.com Words of the Days of 1999
1999 · 2000 · 2001 · 2002 · 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008
emolument, palindrome, deprecate, bivouac, umbrage, incipient, dapple, pugnacious, capitulate, susurrus, thaumaturgy, capacious and 229 more...
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