Os"tra*cism (?), 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.
© Webster 1913.