Boycott Definition
boikŏt
boycotted, boycotting, boycotts
verb
boycotted, boycotting, boycotts
To join together in refusing to deal with, so as to punish, coerce, etc.
Webster's New World
To abstain from or act together in abstaining from using, buying, dealing with, or participating in as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion.
Boycott a business; boycott merchants; boycott buses; boycott an election.
American Heritage
To refuse to buy, sell, or use.
To boycott a newspaper.
Webster's New World
A concerted action by two or more individuals or entities to avoid commercial dealings with a business or to induce others to take the same action. This may include the refusal to work for the business and to purchase or distribute the company’s products. While peaceful boycotts are generally legal, boycotts that use coercion or intimidation to prevent others from dealing with the targeted business are not.
Webster's New World Law
Synonyms:
noun
boycotts
An act or instance of boycotting.
Webster's New World
pronoun
A surname.
Wiktionary
Origin of Boycott
From Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, an English evicting land agent in Ireland who was subject to a boycott organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.
From Wiktionary
After Charles C. Boycott (1832–1897), English land agent in Ireland
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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