ostracize

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To exclude from a group. See Synonyms at blackball.
  2. transitive verb To banish by ostracism, as in ancient Greece.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • 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
  • It is true that some of the old Dutch inhabitants who sat down to its perusal, expecting to read a veritable account of the exploits of their ancestors, were puzzled by the indirection of its commendation; and several excellent old ladies of New York and Albany were in blazing indignation at the ridicule put upon the old Dutch people, and minded to ostracize the irreverent author from all social recognition. —  Washington Irving
  • I wondered if Pericles 'political enemies, the conservative wealthy, might find enough support to ostracize him, exiling him for a year. —  Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
  • -- To avoid, to ostracize. —  Henry Ossian Flipper The Colored Cadet at West Point
  • Do they avoid and ostracize them socially? —  A Life of Gen Robert E Lee
 

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Ostracize has been looked up 349 times, favorited once, listed 27 times, and commented on 0 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Greek ostrakizein, from ostrakon, shell, potsherd (from the potsherds used as ballots in voting for ostracism); see ost- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Greek ὀστρακίζειν, banish by vote, from ὄστρακον, a potsherd or tablet used in voting, a tile, an earthen vessel, the shell of a mussel, oyster, snail, etc., akin to ὀστρεον, an oyster: see oyster.
 

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/ˈɑstrəsaɪz/
by American Heritage

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