ostracize, v.
(ˈɒstrəsaɪz)
[ad. Gr. ὀστρακίζειν, f. ὄστρακον earthen vessel, tile, potsherd: see -ize.]
1. trans. (Gr. Hist.) To banish by voting with potsherds: see ostracism 1.
| 1850 Grote Greece ii. lxvii. VIII. 478 Damon was..rendered so unpopular at Athens,..that he was ostracised. 1866 Felton Anc. & Mod. Gr. II. i. vi. 109 Two Athenian statesmen, Nicias and Alcibiades, united to ostracize Hyperbolus, a lamp-maker,..and by ostracizing him they ostracized ostracism itself. |
2. fig. To banish or expel as by ostracism; to exclude from society, favour, or common privileges.
| 1649 Marvell Death Ld. Hastings 26 Therefore the Democratick Stars did rise, And all that Worth from hence did Ostracize. 1803 Edin. Rev. II. 142 Conjurors who..endeavour to ostracise this submarine invader. 1853 Bright Sp. Peace 13 Oct. (1876) 460 Your newspapers..denounced and ostracised hundreds of good men. 1890 Mercier Sanity & Insanity xiii. 343 Ostracised from society because of the drunken and violent habits of his wife. |
Hence ˈostracized ppl. a., ˈostracizing vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also ˈostracizable a., capable of being ostracized; ˈostracizer, one who ostracizes.
| 1847 Grote Greece ii. xxxi. IV. 210 Kleisthenês did not permit the process of ostracising to be opened against any one citizen exclusively. 1849 Ibid. xli. V. 174 The ostracised Aristeidês arrived at Salamis. 1854 Blackw. Mag. LXXV. 255 He wrote his own name on the ostracising shell. 1862 All Year Round Christm. No. 35 He..covertly threw handfuls of grain to the ostracised cockerels. 1876 T. Hardy Ethelberta II. 3 A mover in circles from which the greatest ostraciser of all is servitude. 1891 Pall Mall G. 11 Sept. 7/3 Our ostracizable Electors. |
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Add: also ostraciˈzation n., the action of ostracizing, the fact or state of being ostracized, ostracism.
| 1898 Ld. Russell of Killowen in R. B. O'Brien Life Ld. Russell (1909) xiv. 295 Ostracisation of any persons who have art or part in any such nefarious enterprises. 1946 M. Peake Titus Groan lx. 359 In his banishment he had felt the isolation of a severed hand... As yet..the horror of his ostracization was too close for him to grasp. 1982 Observer 26 Sept. 35/9 Men of a certain social class were assumed to be gentlemen until proved otherwise, and the sanction of their peers was ostracisation. |