eject
Americanverb (used with object)
-
ejects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ejected,
past participle, past
-
ejecting
present participle
-
to drive or force out; expel, as from a place or position.
The police ejected the hecklers from the meeting.
-
to dismiss, as from office or occupancy.
-
to evict, as from property.
- Synonyms:
- dispossess, oust
-
to throw out, as from within; throw off.
verb (used without object)
-
ejects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ejected,
past participle, past
-
ejecting
present participle
verb
-
(tr) to drive or force out; expel or emit
-
(tr) to compel (a person) to leave; evict; dispossess
-
(tr) to dismiss, as from office
-
(intr) to leave an aircraft rapidly, using an ejection seat or capsule
-
(tr) psychiatry to attribute (one's own motivations and characteristics) to others
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ejectsimple
-
ejectssimple
-
have ejectedperfect
-
has ejectedperfect
-
am ejectingprogressive
-
are ejectingprogressive
-
is ejectingprogressive
-
have been ejectingperfect progressive
-
has been ejectingperfect progressive
Past
-
ejectedsimple
-
had ejectedperfect
-
was ejectingprogressive
-
were ejectingprogressive
-
had been ejectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of eject
First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin ējectus “thrown out” (past participle of ējicere ), equivalent to ē- + jec- (combining form of jacere ) “to throw” + -tus past participle suffix; see e- 1
Explanation
It’s good to eject yourself from a burning spaceship (if you happen to have an escape pod and a nice small planet to land on), but if a teacher ejects you from class, well that’s not so good. Eject comes from “jectere,” the Latin word meaning throw, but the “e” means out. If you want to say, “throw the rascals out!” in only one word, you should choose, “eject!” The opposite of eject is inject. Thinking about the nurse throwing the measles vaccine into your arm makes that doctor’s visit seem a little less friendly.
Vocabulary lists containing eject
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury (1950)
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Latin Love, Vol II: iacere
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Roots: ject
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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:
The pilot, the only person on board the aircraft, managed to eject from the jet before the crash, said Marine Corps spokesperson Capt. Jacob Sugg.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
The six-page document discussed issues including the F-5’s flight controls, what could happen if pilots had to eject, and previous crashes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
They use electric fields to charge particles in a liquid propellant and then eject those particles into space, creating thrust.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026
Manele has since avoided a vote of confidence, which would eject him and his government from power if he loses.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
On my way home from my last run, Charlie makes me eject Dad’s Sam Cooke CD and turn on the radio.
From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King
Saturn's surroundings are of growing interest because of Enceladus, a moon that ejects icy plumes from a subsurface ocean and may potentially support life.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026
Spivey's .45 caliber, like most firearms, ejects casingsbehind and to the right.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
As it does, it ejects any leftover fuel, which freezes instantly due to the altitude in a spiral pattern caused by the rocket's movement.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025
Researchers are still trying to understand how the collision ejects material, what the material is made of and how the resulting kilonova unfolds.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 9, 2023
He stops fights, ejects drunks, soothes hysteria, cures headaches, and tends bar.
From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck
"But that doesn't necessarily mean that Deimos is actually an asteroid. It could also have formed from material ejected during impacts on Mars."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
“They were ejected from it, thrown clear down the road.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Gen Bagherzadeh said the three pilots had been captured by Qatar after they ejected from their jets during the combat mission on a Qatari military base.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
"The pilot was ejected and has been recovered."
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Sometimes they are ejected into the emptiness of space, never to be seen again, but sometimes they fall into a long orbit around the Sun.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
The rescue operation reportedly included an A-10 Warthog aircraft which was hit over the Gulf, with its pilot ejecting before being rescued.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2026
One crew member from the F-15 was rescued shortly after ejecting, but the second remained missing for days, prompting an urgent and highly coordinated recovery effort.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026
Xi’s motives for ejecting Zhang may never be definitively known.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
But when he didn’t, third base umpire Tripp Gibson did the honors of ejecting him from the game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
The core collapses in on itself, ejecting the outer layers in a display of light and energy greater than that which the sun will produce over its entire lifetime.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
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.
