First recorded before 950; Middle English shunen, Old English scunian “to avoid, fear”
If you purposely stay away from someone, you shun that person. A sensitive baker may ask why you are shunning her cookies. Although the verb shun means to deliberately avoid anything, it has a specific meaning in certain groups and communities. In this case, it means to ostracize or expel from that group or community. The Amish, for example, may shun members of their order who repeatedly ignore the beliefs and rules of Amish society. The word may also be used in more casual group settings. After many attempts at being polite, you and your friends began to shun the obnoxious classmate who never let you get a word in edgewise.
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Ping Shun, another sanctioned vessel owned by a company based in Shandong in China which normally exports to that country, loaded 600,000 barrels of oil from Kharg and is also in the Gulf of Oman.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
Japanese bronze medallist Shun Sato on Friday blamed the "toxic schedule" of Olympic men's figure skating for US favourite Ilia Malinin's shocking slump off the podium.
From Barron's • Feb. 14, 2026
Shun the airport for Interstate 5, where no one could see how I fit into my bucket seat.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2026
To determine which explanation fits, Hideki Asada, a theoretical physicist and Professor at Hirosaki University, and Shun Yamamoto, a researcher at the Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University, have proposed a new approach.
From Science Daily • Oct. 15, 2025
There are Times, Shun, when I think real hard on the Fireside & you & Ma & a Volume to mull.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson
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.
