rustication
Americannoun
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Also called rustic work. Architecture. any of various forms of ashlar so dressed and tooled that the visible faces are raised above or otherwise contrasted with the horizontal and usually the vertical joints.
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the act of a person or thing that rusticates.
Etymology
Origin of rustication
First recorded in 1615–25, rustication is from the Latin word rūsticātiōn- (stem of rūsticātiō ). See rusticate, -ion
Explanation
When you pack up your city apartment and move to the country, you can call it rustication — it's a term that can have positive or negative associations, depending on how excited you are about living in the boonies. The noun rustication is good for what your grandfather did when he retired to a rural town to become a gentleman farmer. You can also describe your grudging attendance at a summer camp deep in the Maine woods as your own rustication. Whether by choice or banishment, rustication is a move to the countryside. The Latin root is rusticus, "open land or country."
Vocabulary lists containing rustication
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.
He’s expected — and expects himself — to use his rustication as a chance to recharge, and then to step right back onto the relentless escalator of his career.
From New York Times • Jun. 28, 2022
It is there as rustication and entablature — there, too, on one of the city’s main churches, Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
From New York Times • Nov. 11, 2021
Some will come back to pay a brief parting call�Magnus Johnson, for example; Senators Ball, Dial, Stanley, Walsh of Massachusetts, McCormick, before a forced retirement to rustication on their farms and by their native fireside.
From Time Magazine Archive
During the last of August His Majesty will hunt in Yorkshire, will spend September en famille at Balmoral Castle, famed Scotch rustication ground of "Dear Albert" and Victoria.
From Time Magazine Archive
"You don't think he'll rusticate us, or anything of that sort?" said Tom, who had felt horrible twinges at the Captain's picture of the effects of rustication on ordinary mortals.
From Tom Brown at Oxford by Hughes, Thomas
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.
