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.
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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:
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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When Mitchell was court-martialed in 1925 for his obstreperous advocacy of air power, his friend & follower Hap Arnold was sent off to rusticate at Fort Riley.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Franco, who has yet to commit himself unequivocally to restoration of the monarchy, sought to rusticate the prince and his prospective bride outside Madrid.
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 our youth, we knew many a quiet village, many a fine beach, many a sheltered bay, where one might wander, or swim, or muse, or rusticate in any way he chose.
From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 439 Volume 17, New Series, May 29, 1852 by William Chambers
Two students were rusticated, or dismissed, by their colleges for climbing King's College Chapel in June 1937.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2019
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
One of the largest developers in Monaco, Marzocco has turned its hand to everything from pink palazzos encrusted with wedding-cake mouldings to rusticated stone castles.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 30, 2014
Well, the cabbies' shelters are like this; from the outside they have the air of little cricket pavilions that have been - somewhat oxymoronically - urbanely rusticated.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2012
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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Old Jack Paar, supposedly rusticating there, is host-narrator.
From Time Magazine Archive
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“The president of your company is rusticating a few miles from here,” Mrs. 144 Tucker asserted on the third.
From The Best Policy by Elliott Flower
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.