ostracize

/ˌɑstrəˈsaɪz/

/ˈɒstrəsaɪz/

Other forms: ostracized; ostracizing; ostracizes

If you banish someone or ignore him, you ostracize him. When the Iranian president claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax, he was ostracized by the international community.

Ostraka is an ancient Greek word for pottery shard. Thousands of years ago, in the Greek city of Athens, there was a public process where you would write the name of someone you wanted to kick out of town on a broken ceramic fragment. If enough Athenians wrote the same name, that person was sent away for ten years. This process was called an ostracism.

Definitions of ostracize

1. verb

   expel from a community or group
   synonyms: ban, banish, blackball, cast out, ostracise, shun

   type of:

   expel, kick out, throw out

   force to leave or move out
2. verb

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

   synonyms: ostracise

   types:

   boycott

   refuse to sponsor; refuse to do business with

   type of:

   exclude, keep out, shut, shut out

   prevent from entering; shut out