From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishostracizeos‧tra‧cize (also ostracise British English) /ˈɒstrəsaɪz $ ˈɑː-/ verb [transitive] REJECT/NOT ACCEPTif a group of people ostracize someone, they refuse to accept them as a member of the group She was afraid that if she spoke up her colleagues would ostracize her. He was ostracized by the other students. —ostracism /-sɪzəm/ noun [uncountable] He suffered years of ostracism.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
ostracize• Many young people are unwilling to admit that they are gay because they fear being ostracized.• But it was too late to save Thernistokles; in 471 he was ostracized.• His client is broke, Baker said, and ostracized.• Aristodemus went home and found himself ostracized, a national villain until he expiated his disgrace by dying a hero at Plataea.• They said when they complained about the message, they were threatened with demotion and termination, ostracized and denied promotion.• The ill are no longer ostracized as moral pariahs except by a few remaining primitive tribes ruled by superstition.• Free riders may be ostracized because their colleagues can easily detect uncooperative attitudes to the company.• After her arrest, Lang was ostracized by her neighbors.• So she spends a good part of the movie getting back at everyone for ostracizing her.• He had committed crimes so appalling that even other prisoners ostracized him.• They might approve of, and practice, ostracizing homosexuals from society, but stoning them to death?Origin ostracize (1800-1900) Greek ostrakizein “to send away by voting with broken pieces of pot”, from ostrakon “broken piece of pot” 