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Webster 1913 Edition


Excommunicate

Ex′com-mu′ni-cate

,
Adj.
[L.
excommunicatus
, p. p. of
communicare
to excommunicate;
ex out + communicare
. See
Communicate
.]
Excommunicated; interdicted from the rites of the church.
Noun.
One excommunicated.
Thou shalt stand cursed and
excommunicate
.
Shakespeare

Exˊcom-mu′ni-cate

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Excommunicated
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Excommunicating
.]
1.
To put out of communion; especially, to cut off, or shut out, from communion with the church, by an ecclesiastical sentence.
2.
To lay under the ban of the church; to interdict.
Martin the Fifth . . . was the first that
excommunicated
the reading of heretical books.
Miltin.

Webster 1828 Edition


Excommunicate

EXCOMMU'NICATE

,
Verb.
T.
[L. ex and communico.] To expel from communion; to eject from the communion of the church, by an ecclesiastical sentence, and deprive of spiritual advantages; as, to excommunicate notorious offenders.

Definition 2024


excommunicate

excommunicate

English

Adjective

excommunicate (not comparable)

  1. Excommunicated.
    • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, John IX:
      the iewes had conspyred allredy that yff eny man did confesse that he was Christ, he shulde be excommunicat out of the Sinagoge.
    • Shakespeare
      Thou shalt stand cursed and excommunicate.

Noun

excommunicate (plural excommunicates)

  1. A person so excluded.

Verb

excommunicate (third-person singular simple present excommunicates, present participle excommunicating, simple past and past participle excommunicated)

  1. (transitive) To officially exclude someone from membership of a church or religious community.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 17, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd, but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.”  She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.
  2. (transitive, historical or figuratively) To exclude from any other group; to banish.

Synonyms

Related terms

Translations