OSTRACIZE

ostracize, ostracise

(verb) avoid speaking to or dealing with; “Ever since I spoke up, my colleagues ostracize me”

banish, ban, ostracize, ostracise, shun, cast out, blackball

(verb) expel from a community or group

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

ostracize (third-person singular simple present ostracizes, present participle ostracizing, simple past and past participle ostracized) (American spelling, Oxford British spelling)

(transitive, Ancient Greece, historical) To ban a person from a city for five or ten years through the procedure of ostracism. [from mid 19th c.]

(by extension) To exclude a person from a community or from society by not communicating with them or by refusing to acknowledge their presence; to refuse to associate with or talk to; to shun. [from mid 17th c.]

Synonyms: blackball, cut someone dead, give someone the cold shoulder, send to Coventry, Thesaurus:ignore

Antonym: Thesaurus:pay attention

Anagrams

• Croatizes, Socratize, socratize

Source: Wiktionary


Os"tra*cize, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ostracized; p. pr. & vb. n. Ostracizing.] Etym: [Gr. Osseous, Oyster.]

1. (Gr. Antiq.)

Definition: To exile by ostracism; to banish by a popular vote, as at Athens. Grote.

2. To banish from society; to put under the ban; to cast out from social, political, or private favor; as, he was ostracized by his former friends. Marvell.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

2 April 2025

COVERT

(adjective) secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; “covert actions by the CIA”; “covert funding for the rebels”


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Coffee Trivia

The word “coffee” entered the English language in 1582 via the Dutch “koffie,” borrowed from the Ottoman Turkish “kahve,” borrowed in turn from the Arabic “qahwah.” The Arabic word qahwah was traditionally held to refer to a type of wine.

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