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

27 May 2025

DIRECTIONALITY

(noun) the property of being directional or maintaining a direction; “the directionality of written English is from left to right”


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