rusticate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to go to the country.
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to stay or sojourn in the country.
verb (used with object)
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to send to or domicile in the country.
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to make rustic, as persons or manners.
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to finish (a wall surface) so as to produce or suggest rustication.
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British. to suspend (a student) from a university as punishment.
verb
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to banish or retire to the country
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to make or become rustic in style, behaviour, etc
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(tr) architect to finish (an exterior wall) with large blocks of masonry that are separated by deep joints and decorated with a bold, usually textured, design
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(tr) to send down from university for a specified time as a punishment
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rusticate
1650–60; < Latin rūsticātus (past participle of rūsticārī to live in the country), equivalent to rūstic ( us ) rustic + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
If you want to move to the countryside — especially if you desire a simple, unsophisticated life there — you may explain to people that you wish to rusticate your busy life. The verb rusticate means "to send to the countryside." If you live in the city, you may want to rusticate your kids in the summers so they can experience a different lifestyle. In Britain, another meaning of the verb is to suspend from university, as in to be punished. If you get caught breaking too many rules with your practical jokes, the dean may rusticate you for a term or two.
Vocabulary lists containing rusticate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Washington bureau chief of the New York Times, who thought the Review's firm stand might encourage the Republican Party to rusticate Welch and all other extremists of his breed.
From Time Magazine Archive
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He plans to rusticate in Mexico, not talk any English for 90 days.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In summer, the Niebuhrs rusticate at Heath, Mass., near the Vermont line.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Johnny Case solves his problem neatly by leaving his fiancee, Julia, to rusticate in the Seton mansion, eloping with her older sister, Linda, who shares his disdain for her family bankroll.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Indeed, I have a project; I want him to rusticate a few months at our place, while I set my lawyer to look into his affairs and see if his estate cannot be cleared.
From A Woman-Hater by Charles Reade
Two students were rusticated, or dismissed, by their colleges for climbing King's College Chapel in June 1937.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2019
Daughter The story of a girl struggling with learning difficulties hardly seems like the meat for great rock’n’roll, but Vedder makes it sing on this rusticated country-rock glide from Vs.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 6, 2016
The rusticated arena lost its shot at hosting the 2016 Democratic National Convention, but there was still plenty to cheer during its first N.B.A.
From New York Times ● Feb. 16, 2015
Much later, after 2 a.m., the saxophonist Jeremy Udden filled the space with the echoing sound of his band, Plainville: a distinctly contemporary wash, warm and rusticated, with a strong pull of nostalgia.
From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2011
I guess this was the rusticated equivalent of coming out.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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On this Maine island, vacation is for rusticating.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 16, 2021
A quiet, brooding sense of menace settles in right at the beginning, which finds Mr. Clooney, his silver hair complemented by a snowy beard, rusticating in the snowy Swedish countryside.
From New York Times ● Aug. 31, 2010
As they left town for England's long Easter holiday, rusticating members of His Majesty's Government ignored a Laborite M. P. who attempted the role of Cassandra.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In 1940, Prince Abdul Illah quashed one would-be Army coup by seizing the Iraqi telephone service and rusticating two uppity generals.
From Time Magazine Archive
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For even in rure it is evident that friends made it a duty of friendship to seek out and relieve their rusticating friends.
From The Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey, Vol. 1 by Alexander H. (Alexander Hay) Japp
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.