shun
/ʃʌn
/verb (shuns, shunning, shunned) [with object]
Persistently avoid, ignore, or reject (someone or something) through antipathy or caution: he shunned fashionable society (as adjective shunned) the shunned wife’s quiet divorce...
- Because if society shuns them and refuses to hire them, then what are they left with besides more crime?
- It's a case of the more you attempt to avoid a public or shun publicity, the more it makes you enigmatic.
- He now lives a quiet, reclusive life in rural Cheshire, with wife Christine, shunning the media spotlight.
Synonyms
avoid, evade, eschew, steer clear of, shy away from, fight shy of, recoil from, keep away from, keep one's distance from, give a wide berth to, have nothing to do with, leave alone, not touch;
snub, give someone the cold shoulder, cold-shoulder, ignore, turn one's back on, cut, cut dead, look right through;
reject, rebuff, dismiss, brush off, turn down, spurn, disdain, refuse, decline, repudiate, ostracize
informal give someone the brush-off, tell someone where to get off, put down, freeze out, stiff-arm
British informal knock back, send to Coventry
North American informal give someone the bum's rush, give someone the brush
Australian informal snout
informal, dated give someone the go-by
Origin
Old English scunian 'abhor, shrink back with fear, seek safety from an enemy', of unknown origin.
Rhymes
- measuringly
- measuring spoon
- measuring tape
- measuring wheel
- measuring worm
- measuring yard
- meat
- meatal
- meat analog
- meat analogue
- meat and potatoes
- meat and two veg
- meat ant
- meat axe
- meatball
- meat-bird
- meat biscuit
- meat block
- meat-board
- meat cleaver
- meat coupon
- meat cube
- meat day
- meat eater
- meat-eating