ouster
Americannoun
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expulsion or removal from a place or position occupied.
The opposition called for the ouster of the cabinet minister.
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Law.
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an ejection or eviction; dispossession.
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a wrongful exclusion from real property.
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noun
Etymology
Origin of ouster
1525–35; < Anglo-French, noun use of infinitive See oust
Explanation
Use the noun ouster to talk about the process of forcing someone out of a position. If your city's mayor is pressured to leave office, you can describe it as her ouster. When someone is dismissed or strongly influenced to abandon a position or quit a job, it's an ouster. A politician is often vulnerable to an ouster, when others are vying for her position, but your boss at work could also be subject to an ouster if his managers conspired to eliminate his job and force him out. Ouster once meant "kick out of one's house or property," from the Old French word oster, "take away, evict, or dispel."
Vocabulary lists containing ouster
This Week in Words: August 28 - September 1
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This Week In Words: April 5–11, 2020
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Donald Trump Foreign Policy Address
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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.
While Park, 49, believes Macklemore's ouster was unfair and a violation of free speech, she said she's mostly unbothered by the drama and prefers to separate the artist from the art.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
She’s contesting the emerging narrative—and maybe her apparent ouster, too.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
Army soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, with using classified information to reap more than $400,000 from bets tied to the timing of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Venezuela freed dozens more political prisoners Friday, the government said, in a sign of progress in talks to reconcile the nation following Nicolas Maduro's ouster.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
Demands for Oldham’s ouster were routinely ignored by the city, however.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
