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/ˈɔstrəsˌɪzəm/ Listen

noun

ostracism n.

(Gr. Antiq.) Banishment by popular vote, a means adopted at Athens to rid the city of a person whose talent and influence gave umbrage.

Banishment; exclusion; as, social ostracism. "Public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great." "Sentenced to a perpetual ostracism from the... confidence, and honors, and emoluments of his country."

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Etymology of 'Ostracism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ostracism" Quotes from Famous Books

... cadet days," smiled the lieutenant, "such a suspicion against a cadet officer would certainly have resulted in ostracism ...

— Dick Prescotts's Fourth Year at West Point - Ready to Drop the Gray for Shoulder Straps • H. Irving Hancock

... that all?" asked Harold, in astonishment. Notwithstanding his regard for his friend, he had never doubted that there must have been some appalling piece of persecution to justify this determined ostracism. ...

— Stories by English Authors: Ireland • Various

... exclusion in case of intimidation would include all cases of absence and of inquiry into what would have been the result if there had been no absence. Intimidation is one kind of undue influence; expectation of benefit is another; fear of social ostracism is another: will you go into them? There seems no middle course between excluding all inquiry into the causes of absence and the probable votes of the absent, and allowing it in every instance where persons entitled to vote have not voted. To my thinking, a certificate given ...

— The Electoral Votes of 1876 - Who Should Count Them, What Should Be Counted, and the Remedy for a Wrong Count • David Dudley Field

... characterized by the intensity, not infrequently malevolence, that had come to mark this and never before had a division between the Executive and the Congress reached a point at which a suggestion of his constitutional ostracism from office had been seriously ...

— History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, • Edumud G. Ross

... Stedman for a portrait, and the need of money grew imperative. He the more blamed Frances for having quarrelled with her aunt, told her it was for her money he had married her, that she had ruined his career, and that she was to blame for his ostracism—a condition that his own misconduct had brought upon him. Finally, after twelve months of this, one morning he left a note saying he no longer would allow her to be a drag upon him, and sailed ...

— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis

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