ostracism : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: ostracism	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for ostracism
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
ostracism n the state of being banished or ostracized (excluded from society by general consent); "the association should get rid of its elderly members--not by euthanasia, of course, but by Coventry" Synonym(s): banishment, ostracism, Coventry the act of excluding someone from society by general consent
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Ostracism \Os"tracism\, n. [Gr. [?], fr. [?] to ostracize. See {Ostracize}.] 1. (Gr. Antiq.) Banishment by popular vote, -- a means adopted at Athens to rid the city of a person whose talent and influence gave umbrage. 2. Banishment; exclusion; as, social ostracism. Public envy is as an ostracism, that eclipseth men when they grow too great. --Bacon. Sentenced to a perpetual ostracism* from the . . . confidence, and honors, and emoluments of his country. --A. Hamilton.