ostracize
Verb
- expel from a community or group
- avoid speaking to or dealing with
- "Ever since I spoke up, my colleagues ostracize me"
- To ban a person from a city for five or ten years through the procedure of ostracism.
- 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.
Origin / Etymology
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.
Synonyms
ban, banish, blackball, cast out, ostracise, shun, brush off, cut someone dead, disregard, dissemble, give someone the cold shoulder, ignore, leper, misheed, misregard, neglect, pass, pass by, pay no heed, put aside, send to Coventry, shrug off, slough, take no notice of, tune out, unheed, unmind
Antonyms
fail to notice, ignore
Scrabble Score: 20
ostracize: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordostracize: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
ostracize: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary