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boycott

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To boycott is to not use or buy a product or service in order to show support for a cause.

(verb)

An example of to boycott is to not buy paper that isn’t made from recycled paper.

The definition of a boycott is a decision to not use or buy products or services in order to show support for a cause.

(noun)

An example of a boycott is not buying paper products made with rainforest wood to protest deforestation.

See boycott in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb

to join together in refusing to deal with, so as to punish, coerce, etc.
to refuse to buy, sell, or use: to boycott a newspaper

Origin: after Capt. C. C. Boycott, land agent ostracized by his neighbors during the Land League agitation in Ireland in 1880

noun

an act or instance of boycotting

See boycott in American Heritage Dictionary 4

transitive verb boy·cott·ed, boy·cott·ing, boy·cotts

To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion. See Synonyms at blackball.

noun

The act or an instance of boycotting.

Origin:

Origin: After Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897), English land agent in Ireland

Related Forms:

boyˈcottˌer noun

Word History: Charles C. Boycott seems to have become a household word because of his strong sense of duty to his employer. An Englishman and former British soldier, Boycott was the estate agent of the Earl of Erne in County Mayo, Ireland. The earl was one of the absentee landowners who as a group held most of the land in Ireland. Boycott was chosen in the fall of 1880 to be the test case for a new policy advocated by Charles Parnell, an Irish politician who wanted land reform. Any landlord who would not charge lower rents or any tenant who took over the farm of an evicted tenant would be given the complete cold shoulder by Parnell's supporters. Boycott refused to charge lower rents and ejected his tenants. At this point members of Parnell's Irish Land League stepped in, and Boycott and his family found themselves isolated—without servants, farmhands, service in stores, or mail delivery. Boycott's name was quickly adopted as the term for this treatment, not just in English but in other languages such as French, Dutch, German, and Russian.

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