Definition

1. Verb:
   • To exclude someone from a society or group: To deliberately avoid including someone in social activities, conversations, or group membership.
   • To banish or expel: To formally or informally force someone to leave a community or group, often as a form of punishment or social rejection.

Usage

• The verb "ostracize" is used to describe a social action where a person is deliberately ignored or excluded.
• It is typically used in passive constructions (e.g., "to be ostracized") or with a direct object (e.g., "to ostracize someone").
• It often describes a collective action by a group against an individual.

Examples

• Verb:
  • After the scandal, the entire community chose to ostracize the former mayor.
  • Children can be cruel and sometimes ostracize a classmate for being different.
  • She felt ostracized by her teammates after missing the decisive goal.

Advanced Usage

• "to ostracize oneself": To behave in a way that causes others to exclude you.
  • By constantly breaking the rules, he effectively ostracized himself from the club.
• Social/Political Ostracism: Used in formal contexts to describe exclusion from political life or social circles as a historical or systemic practice.
  • The ancient Athenian practice was to ostracize a citizen by popular vote for ten years.

Variants and Related Words

• Ostracism (noun): The state of being ostracized; the practice of ostracizing.
  • The ostracism he experienced at work led to his resignation.
• Ostracized (adjective): Describing someone who has been excluded.
  • The ostracized member sat alone at lunch.

Synonyms

• Exclude: To deliberately leave someone out.
• Shun: To persistently avoid, ignore, or reject someone.
• Blackball: To reject someone from a club or group by voting against them.
• Banish: To send someone away, especially from a country or community, as an official punishment.

Antonyms

• Welcome: To greet someone warmly into a group.
• Include: To make someone part of a group or activity.
• Embrace: To accept and support someone willingly and enthusiastically.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• To send someone to Coventry: (British English idiom) Meaning to ostracize someone by refusing to speak to them.
  • After he reported the safety violations, his coworkers sent him to Coventry.
• To give someone the cold shoulder: To intentionally ignore someone or treat them in an unfriendly way.
  • Ever since their argument, she has given him the cold shoulder.

Verb

1. avoid speaking to or dealing with
   • Ever since I spoke up, my colleagues ostracize me
2. expel from a community or group