Meanings
present singular third person rusticates · participle present rusticating · participle past rusticated · past rusticated
- ambitransitiveDurham UniversityTo be suspended or expelled temporarily from the university, either compulsorily or voluntarily.
I was very unwell, so I had to rusticate for a year.
3 more examples
The college rusticated him after he failed all his exams.
Pen looked at his early acquaintance,—who had been plucked, who had been rusticated, who had only, after repeated failures, learned to read and write correctly, and who, in spite of all these drawbacks, had attained the honour of a degree.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter XXI, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC"You don't think he'll rusticate us, or any thing of that sort?" said Tom, who had felt horrible twinges at the captain's picture of the effects of rustication on ordinary mortals.
1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “The Captain’s Notions”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 192 - transitiveTo compel to live in or to send to the countryside; to cause to become rustic.
- intransitiveTo go to reside in the country.
So alarming did the state of my finances become, that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living.
1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter I (Mr. Sherlock Holmes), page 2
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinrūsticātus
- Englishrusticate
Borrowed from Latin rūsticātus, perfect active participle of rūsticor (“to live in the countryside”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), originally in the same sense. First attested in the mid-17th century. By surface analysis, rustic + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Czech vyloučit ze studií
- vyloučit ze studiísuspend or expel from a college or university
French limoger
- limogersuspend or expel from a college or university
German exmatrikulieren, zwangsexmatrikulieren
- exmatrikulierensuspend or expel from a college or university
- zwangsexmatrikulierensuspend or expel from a college or university
- aufs Land ziehento go to reside in the country
Cite this entry
rusticate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rusticate
“rusticate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rusticate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rusticate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rusticate.
Source: rusticate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.