Shun

//ʃʌn// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To avoid, especially persistently; ostracize. transitive

    "Acrophobes shun mountaineering."

  2. 2
    avoid and stay away from deliberately; stay clear of wordnet
  3. 3
    To escape (a threatening evil, an unwelcome task etc). transitive

    "I'll shun meeting them for as long as possible."

  4. 4
    expel from a community or group wordnet
  5. 5
    To screen, hide. transitive
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    To shove, push. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
abstainabstain fromavoidbalkbanbanish

Antonyms

All antonyms
employ

Example

More examples

"Shun will take over my job while I'm away."

Etymology

From Middle English schonen (“to decline to do, avoid, fear”), from Old English sċunian (“to shun, fear, avoid”), of uncertain origin, though probably ultimately connected to the Proto-Indo-European root *(s)kewH- (“to cover, conceal”) via Proto-Germanic [Term?]; see that entry for more discussion. Compare hide, shy, and Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “to cover”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.