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. 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
- Greek ostrakizein, from ostrakon, shell, potsherd (from the potsherds used as ballots in voting for ostracism); see ost- in Indo-European roots.
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.”
Henry Ossian Flipper The Colored Cadet at West Point
“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 4084 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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MoneyBall
gutted, ostracize, leper, cagey, curb, specter, lurking, bunt
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