boycott

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The Word of the Day for January 7 is: 

boycott   \BOY-kaht\   verb
           : to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (as a 
person, store, or organization) usually to express disapproval or to force 
acceptance of certain conditions

Example sentence:
           The group boycotted the clothing company to protest its practice of 
employing sweatshop labor.

Did you know?
           In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that 
threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of 
the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign 
against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of 
the crisis. Retired British army captain Charles Boycott had the misfortune to 
be acting as an agent for an absentee landlord at the time, and when he tried 
to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by 
the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and his crops began 
to rot. Boycott's fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for 
that particular protest strategy.





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