Noun

(historical) In ancient Athens (and some other cities), the temporary banishment by popular vote of a citizen considered dangerous to the state.

* {{quote-book, year=1579, year_published=1898, author=(Thomas North), by=(Plutarch)

, title= Plutarch's Lives , section=Themistocles, volume=2, page=35 , passage= For this manner of banishment for a time, called ostracismos , was no punishment for any fault committed, but a mitigation and taking away of the envy of the people, which delighted to pluck down their stomacks that too much seemed to exceed in greatness:

* {{quote-book, year=1588, year_published=1886, author=

, title= The life and complete works in prose and verse of Robert Greene , chapter=Perimedes the Blacke-Smith, editor=(Alexander Balloch Grosart), volume=7, page=19 , passage=

*, II.32:

*:Witnesse the Ostracisme'' amongst the Athenians, and the ''Petalisme among the Siracusans.

(figuratively) Banishment by some general consent.

* {{quote-book, year=1602—3, year_published=1994, author=(Lady Arbella Stuart)

, title= The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart , publisher=Oxford University Press, location=New York, editor=Sara Jayne Steen, page=171 , passage=If I have deserved the land should spue me out, I will feed my selfe with the idle and windy conceite of an Ostracisme , and my unregarded poore selfe shall be all the richesse and commpany I crave to transport and if a Princes word

Temporary exclusion from a community or society.

Noun

(en noun)

The act of expelling or the state of being expelled.

The scandal involved every member of the high school's football team resulting in a flurry of expulsions , starting with the quarterback.