verb. (common).—To combine in refusing to hold relations of any kind, social or commercial, public or private, with a person on account of political or other differences, so as to punish or coerce him. The word arose in the autumn of 1880—Capt. Boycott, an Irish landlord, was the original victim—to describe the action instituted by the Irish Land League towards those who incurred its hostility. It was speedily adopted into every European language.
