First recorded before 950; Middle English shunen, Old English scunian “to avoid, fear”
If you purposely stay away from someone, you shun that person. A sensitive baker may ask why you are shunning her cookies. Although the verb shun means to deliberately avoid anything, it has a specific meaning in certain groups and communities. In this case, it means to ostracize or expel from that group or community. The Amish, for example, may shun members of their order who repeatedly ignore the beliefs and rules of Amish society. The word may also be used in more casual group settings. After many attempts at being polite, you and your friends began to shun the obnoxious classmate who never let you get a word in edgewise.
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Ping Shun, another sanctioned vessel owned by a company based in Shandong in China which normally exports to that country, loaded 600,000 barrels of oil from Kharg and is also in the Gulf of Oman.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
Japan's Yuma Kagiyama, second after the short programme, also fell during his routine, but took silver ahead of compatriot Shun Sato who moved up from ninth.
From Barron's • Feb. 14, 2026
A search and rescue operation is underway to find the remaining six Burmese sailors who were reported missing after their Tanzania-flagged cargo ship Fu Shun went down off the northern coast of Taiwan.
From BBC • Jul. 25, 2024
Lead study investigator Shun Araki emphasizes that with appropriate guidance, astrocytes' functions could be harnessed to address a range of neurological conditions.
From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2024
Oh, Shun, you scarce can think of the Panic this Word occasioned.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
