boycott

verb

boy·​cott ˈbȯi-ˌkät 

boycotted; boycotting; boycotts

transitive verb

: to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions

boycotting American products

boycott noun

boycotter noun

Did you know?

In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. When retired British army captain Charles Boycott, acting as an agent for an absentee landlord, tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and the crops in his care began to rot. Boycott’s fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy, both as a verb and as a noun. Across the Atlantic three-quarters of a century later, boycotts such as the Montgomery bus boycott were pivotal components of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Examples of boycott in a Sentence

plans to boycott American products

They boycotted the city's bus system.

We boycotted companies that were polluting the environment.

Recent Examples on the Web

Following Venezuela’s sham legislative elections May 25, which were boycotted by the main opposition coalition and marked by an embarrassingly low voter turnout, dictator Nicolás Maduro is likely done pretending to hold free elections. —Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 30 May 2025

Here is how students are preserving the traditions Last month, the Trump administration threatened to cancel medical research funds and to pull the accreditation of universities that have diversity and inclusion programs or boycott Israeli companies. —Chris Lau, CNN Money, 29 May 2025

Widespread calls to boycott the U.S. by canceling holidays have also emerged on social media. —Marni Rose McFall, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 May 2025

There’s a definite purity-politics flavor to any suggestion that people should take a moral stand and leave a social network, but also a pretty airtight case to be made for boycotting it. —Charlie Warzel, The Atlantic, 23 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

Charles C. Boycott †1897 English land agent in Ireland who was ostracized for refusing to reduce rents

First Known Use

1880, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing boycott

• anti-boycott

Rhymes for boycott

• allot
• barat
• begot
• besought
• bethought
• bloodshot
• buckshot
• crackpot
• croat
• culottes
• dashpot
• distraught

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Kids Definition

boycott

1 of 2 verb

boy·​cott

ˈbȯi-ˌkät

: to join with others in refusing to deal with a person, organization, or country usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of terms

boycott

2 of 2 noun

: the process or an instance of boycotting

Etymology

named for Charles Boycott 1832–1897 estate manager in Ireland

Word Origin

In the autumn of 1880 there was much unrest in the Irish countryside as the result of a depression. Many farmers who did not own the land they worked were unable to pay their rent. A Land League was formed to fight eviction of tenants, and the first victim of their campaign was one Charles S. Boycott, a retired English army captain who worked as an agent for an absentee landlord in County Mayo. When this landlord's tenants refused to pay their rents unless they received a reduction, Boycott attempted to serve eviction notices. As a result, he was shunned by the community, his laborers and servants quit, and the crops on his own farm began to rot. Fifty volunteers from northern Ireland were sent to Mayo to harvest his crops, guarded by hundreds of troops and police. The new tactic of shunning a person to assert a grievance needed a name, and Boycott's name was at hand. Though the British government banned the Irish Land League, the word boycott is still part of English.

Legal Definition

boycott

transitive verb

boy·​cott ˈbȯi-ˌkät 

: to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (as a store, business, or organization) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions see also primary boycott, secondary boycott

Note: A boycott of a business by its competitors, suppliers, or buyers that has the effect of preventing the business's access to the market is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

boycott noun