Link Centre Dictionary

ostracize

ost·ra·cize

UK/ˈɒstɹəsaɪz/ US/ˈɑstɹəˌsaɪz/ uncommon british us

verb

1.
2.

avoid speaking to or dealing with

  • “Ever since I spoke up, my colleagues ostracize me”
Synonyms

Origin

From Ancient Greek ὀστρακίζω (ostrakízō, “to banish from a city by ostracism”), from ὄστρᾰκον (óstrăkon, “earthenware vessel; fragment of such a vessel, potsherd”) (from the fact that when voting was held to decide whether to banish people, their names were inscribed on potsherds) + -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō, suffix forming verbs)). The English word is cognate with French ostraciser.

Phrases

  • silent treatment

Related words

Word family

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Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.