English Dictionary |
EXCOMMUNICATE
Pronunciation (US): | (GB): |
IPA (US): |
Dictionary entry overview: What does excommunicate mean?
• EXCOMMUNICATE (verb)
The verb EXCOMMUNICATE has 2 senses:
1. exclude from a church or a religious community
2. oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree
Familiarity information: EXCOMMUNICATE used as a verb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Conjugation: |
Past simple: excommunicated
Past participle: excommunicated
-ing form: excommunicating
Sense 1
Meaning:
Exclude from a church or a religious community
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Synonyms:
curse; excommunicate; unchurch
Context example:
The gay priest was excommunicated when he married his partner
Hypernyms (to "excommunicate" is one way to...):
exclude; keep out; shut; shut out (prevent from entering; shut out)
Verb group:
excommunicate (oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Antonym:
communicate (administer Communion; in church)
Derivation:
excommunication (the act of banishing a member of a church from the communion of believers and the privileges of the church; cutting a person off from a religious society)
excommunication (the state of being excommunicated)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "excommunicate" is one way to...):
boot out; drum out; expel; kick out; oust; throw out (remove from a position or office)
Verb group:
curse; excommunicate; unchurch (exclude from a church or a religious community)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
excommunication (the state of being excommunicated)
Context examples
However, we got him excommunicated for six weeks, and sentenced in no end of costs; and then the baker's proctor, and the judge, and the advocates on both sides (who were all nearly related), went out of town together, and Mr. Spenlow and I drove away in the phaeton.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We had an adjourned cause in the Consistory that day—about excommunicating a baker who had been objecting in a vestry to a paving-rate—and as the evidence was just twice the length of Robinson Crusoe, according to a calculation I made, it was rather late in the day before we finished.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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