to combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as a means of intimidation or coercion.
to boycott a store.
to abstain from buying or using.
to boycott foreign products.
the practice of boycotting.
an instance of boycotting.
After Charles C. Boycott (1832–97), English estate manager in Ireland, against whom nonviolent coercive tactics were used in 1880
To boycott means to stop buying or using the goods or services of a certain company or country as a protest; the noun boycott is the protest itself. This noun comes from the name of Charles C. Boycott, an English land agent in 19th-century Ireland who refused to reduce rents for his tenant farmers. As a result, the local residents did not want to have any dealings with him. Boycotts are an effective way to use your spending dollars to effect change.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nestlé has weathered controversies before, including a U.S. boycott in the late 1970s tied to marketing baby formula as an alternative to breast-feeding in developing countries.
From Barron's • Jun. 10, 2026
The boycott withdrawal comes after Singh reportedly sent a legal notice to the federation.
From BBC • Jun. 4, 2026
J&J Nursery, a facility owned by a state senator who helped approve the Stratos megaproject, is facing widespread calls for a boycott.
From Slate • Jun. 1, 2026
After her election, she apologized for encouraging a boycott of Starbucks on the campaign trail.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 27, 2026
And with that—after several years of struggle—the last serious American effort to boycott the Berlin Olympics was effectively dead.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
