exile Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a person who is voluntarily absent from home or country
    expatriate; expat.
    • American expatriates
  2. noun a person who is expelled from home or country by authority
    deportee.
  3. noun the act of expelling a person from their native land
    deportation; expatriation; transportation.
    • men in exile dream of hope
    • his deportation to a penal colony
    • the expatriation of wealthy farmers
    • the sentence was one of transportation for life
  4. verb expel from a country
    expatriate; deport.
    • The poet was exiled because he signed a letter protesting the government's actions

WordNet

Ex"ile noun
Etymology
OE. exil, fr. L. exilium, exsilium, fr. exsuil one who quits, or is banished from, his native soil; ex out + solum ground, land, soil, or perh. fr.the root of salire to leap, spring; cf. F. exil. Cf. Sole of the foot, Saltation.
Definitions
  1. Forced separation from one's native country; expulsion from one's home by the civil authority; banishment; sometimes, voluntary separation from one's native country.
    Let them be recalled from their exile. Shak.
  2. The person expelled from his country by authority; also, one who separates himself from his home.
    Thou art in exile, and thou must not stay. Shak.
    Syn. -- Banishment; proscription; expulsion.
Ex"ile transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Exiled ; present participle & verbal noun Exiling
Definitions
  1. To banish or expel from one's own country or home; to drive away. "Exiled from eternal God." Tennyson.
    Calling home our exiled friends abroad. Shak.
    Syn. -- See Banish.
Ex*ile" adjective
Etymology
L. exilis.
Definitions
  1. Small; slender; thin; fine. Obs. "An exile sound." Bacon.

Webster 1913