ostracize

To ostracize is to deliberately exclude or leave someone out.

(verb)

An example of ostracize is when you don't invite one person in the class to a party that everyone else is going to.

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See ostracize in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb ostracized, ostracizing

to banish, bar, exclude, etc. by ostracism

Origin: Gr ostrakizein, to exile by votes written on tiles or potsherds < ostrakon, a shell, potsherd, akin to osteon, bone: see ossify

See ostracize in American Heritage Dictionary 4

transitive verb os·tra·cized, os·tra·ciz·ing, os·tra·ciz·es
  1. To exclude from a group. See Synonyms at blackball.
  2. To banish by ostracism, as in ancient Greece.

Origin:

Origin: Greek ostrakizein

Origin: , from ostrakon, shell, potsherd (from the potsherds used as ballots in voting for ostracism); see ost- in Indo-European roots

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