Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To go to or live in the country.
  • intransitive verb To send to the country.
  • intransitive verb Chiefly British To suspend (a student) from a university.
  • intransitive verb To cut or shape (masonry blocks) with deep-set joints and a rough-hewn face.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dwell or reside in the country.
  • To send to the country; induce or (especially) compel to reside in the country; specifically, to suspend from studies at a college or university and send away for a time by way of punishment. See rustication.
  • In masonry, to form into rustic work.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To go into or reside in the country; to ruralize.
  • transitive verb To require or compel to reside in the country; to banish or send away temporarily; to impose rustication on.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive (UK) To suspend or expel from a college or university.
  • verb transitive To construct in a manner so as to produce jagged or heavily textured surfaces.
  • verb transitive To compel to live in or to send to the countryside; to cause to become rustic.
  • verb intransitive To go to reside in the country.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb give (stone) a rustic look
  • verb lend a rustic character to
  • verb suspend temporarily from college or university, in England
  • verb send to the country
  • verb live in the country and lead a rustic life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin rūsticārī, rūsticāt-, from rūsticus, rustic; see rustic.]

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Examples

  • After all she couldn't rusticate someone just on suspicion.

    Dangle Veils 2010

  • There, with his wife, Ella, and her parents, he took several weeks away from his dry labors to rusticate on the Lake Michigan shore.

    LAST CALL DANIEL OKRENT 2010

  • There, with his wife, Ella, and her parents, he took several weeks away from his dry labors to rusticate on the Lake Michigan shore.

    LAST CALL DANIEL OKRENT 2010

  • This summer, I'll finally be able to rusticate in my acre of BSH (bourgeois suburban heaven) without apology or self-consciousness.

    There’s No Place Like Home 2009

  • Georgie is sent to Castle Ronnoch in Scotland where she is told to rusticate; stay out of trouble; keep a divorcee away from the Prince of Wales who is staying at the castle while on a hunting trip; and by Scotland Yard to perform unpaid volunteered surveillance to insure no on stalks the royals.

    Royal Flush-Rhys Bowen « The Merry Genre Go Round Reviews 2009

  • Suzdal, the perfect place for a damaged man to rusticate.

    Stalin's Ghost Smith, Martin Cruz, 1942- 2007

  • The beef lobby helped rusticate the three-term senator, sending an unmistakable warning to anyone who would challenge the American diet, and in particular the big chunk of animal protein sitting in the middle of its plate.

    Archive 2007-01-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • The beef lobby helped rusticate the three-term senator, sending an unmistakable warning to anyone who would challenge the American diet, and in particular the big chunk of animal protein sitting in the middle of its plate.

    <a href="http://althouse.blogspot.com/2007/01/nutritionism-ideology-that-has.html" title="Nutritionism, the ideology that has replaced food Ann Althouse 2007

  • *Although, with the aging demographics of the Baby Boomer generation, more and more people have disconnected their vacation schedule from the school year and rusticate here in September and October.

    Bye bye to the "summer complaints" jhetley 2005

  • I returned home, and found my family on the eve of their departure for London; my long confinement had weakened me -- it was deemed inadvisable for me to encounter the bad air and fatigues of the metropolis, and I remained to rusticate.

    The Mourner 2002

Comments

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  • In ancient universities like Oxford and Cambridge, this means to suspend a student - presumably resulting in their return to their country house.

    January 3, 2008

  • "The sophomores were rusticated for their involvement in the university protests."

    When I first came across this word in University, I took it to mean - suspended till your brain starts to rust.

    January 18, 2008

  • Haha! That's a much better definition than the real one, Bness. ;-)

    January 18, 2008

  • "Alfred Yule, with his wife and daughter, rusticated somewhere in Kent."

    George Gissing, New Grub Street.

    January 29, 2008

  • Scipio, who would have liked better to see me once more blazing at court, than either cloistered or rusticated, advised me to shew my face at the cardinal's audience.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 10 ch. 1

    October 8, 2008

  • I have been rusticating here in the mountains for three years,

    now, like the Tin Man, I must oil my creaky joints

    and re-join the fray

    November 14, 2009

  • Good Word

    November 10, 2012