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.
Johnson, 54, had led the House since October 2023, when he emerged as a compromise candidate after weeks of Republican infighting following the ouster of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
In fact, Batista purchased a home in Daytona Beach and lived there for several years following his initial ouster in the mid-1940s.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2026
The incumbent also said that McDonnell’s ouster, less than two years before the Olympics, could send the department into “disarray.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2026
Still, “the colleagues who facilitated his ouster accuse him of a degree of deception that is untenable for any executive and dangerous for a leader of such a transformative technology.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Marshall was chiefly interested in Malcolm X’s finances, particularly how his extensive traveling since his Black Muslim ouster had been paid for.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
