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ostracize

Syllabification: (os·tra·cize)
Pronunciation: /ˈästrəˌsīz/

Translate ostracize | into French | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of ostracize

verb

[with object]
  • exclude (someone) from a society or group:a group of people who have been ridiculed, ostracized, and persecuted for centuries
  • (in ancient Greece) banish (an unpopular or too powerful citizen) from a city for five or ten years by popular vote.

Origin:

mid 17th century: from Greek ostrakizein, from ostrakon 'shell or potsherd' (on which names were written, in voting to banish unpopular citizens)

ostracize in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of ostracize in the British & World English dictionary
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