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:
In summer, the Niebuhrs rusticate at Heath, Mass., near the Vermont line.
From Time Magazine Archive
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In other words, as far as the Soviet-dominated government in Prague is concerned, Dub?ek's main job in Ankara is to rusticate.
From Time Magazine Archive
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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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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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But stately things, in robes of learning, Discussed one day the bejant’s fate: Ah, let us mourn him unreturning, For they resolved to rusticate!
From The Scarlet Gown being verses by a St. Andrews Man by Murray, Robert F. (Robert Fuller)
“Too much ‘David,’” she went on, dismissively, “too much rusticated stone, too much glazed terra-cotta, too many Madonnas with Bambinos.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2022
Two students were rusticated, or dismissed, by their colleges for climbing King's College Chapel in June 1937.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2019
The earthy cooking, the rusticated backdrops, the antique tableware, the children, the dogs, the wine — it all proved a bit too perfect for some.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2017
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
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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In 1940, Prince Abdul Illah quashed one would-be Army coup by seizing the Iraqi telephone service and rusticating two uppity generals.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The presidente told us, with delight, that the jefe politico of Ozuluama was there with his family, rusticating, and at once summoned him to meet us.
From In Indian Mexico (1908) by Starr, Frederick
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.