ostracize

ostracize
verb|AH-struh-syze
 
What It Means
 
To ostracize someone is to exclude them from a group by the agreement of the group's members.
 
// She was ostracized by her community after refusing to sign the petition.
 
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Examples of OSTRACIZE
 
"Telling stories with affection and noodging, [comedian Sarah] Silverman has always been encouraged by her family, who embraced rather than ostracized her for revealing family secrets on the way to reaping howls of laughter." — Thelma Adams, The Boston Globe, 19 May 2025
 



 
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Did You Know?
 
In ancient Greece, citizens whose power or influence threatened the stability of the state could be exiled by a practice involving voters writing that person's name down on a potsherd—a fragment of earthenware or pottery. Those receiving enough votes would then be subject to temporary exile from the state. Ostracize comes from the Greek verb ostrak;zein (itself from the noun ;strakon meaning "potsherd"), used in 5th century Athens for the action of banishing someone by way of such a vote. Someone ostracized today is not exiled, but instead is excluded from a group by the agreement of the group's members.