excommunicate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb exclude from a church or a religious community
    curse; unchurch.
    • The gay priest was excommunicated when he married his partner
  2. verb oust or exclude from a group or membership by decree

WordNet

Ex"com*mu"ni*cate adjective
Etymology
L. excommunicatus, p. p. of communicare to excommunicate; ex out + communicare. See Communicate.
Definitions
  1. Excommunicated; interdicted from the rites of the church. -- n. One excommunicated.
    Thou shalt stand cursed and excommunicate. Shak.
Ex`com*mu"ni*cate transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Excommunicated ; present participle & verbal noun Excommunicating
Definitions
  1. To put out of communion; especially, to cut off, or shut out, from communion with the church, by an ecclesiastical sentence.
  2. To lay under the ban of the church; to interdict.
    Martin the Fifth . . . was the first that excommunicated the reading of heretical books. Miltin.

Webster 1913