Expel

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɪkˈspɛl/

Definitions

1. To forcibly remove someone from a place or organization, often in response to wrongdoing, while simultaneously discharging a substance from within a structure or system
2. To take action that causes someone to leave a location or group, particularly as a form of punishment, while also releasing or ejecting something contained within a space or organism
3. To cause a person to leave a location or organization as a result of authority or discipline ; to push out or force something out from within a body or container

Etymology: The verb carries a literal sense of driving something out by force. Its Latin ancestor, "expellere", was built from "ex-", meaning "out", and "pellere", meaning "to drive" or "to push". Picture a shepherd driving a flock out through a gate, and you have the core image that still sits inside the word today. English took the word in the Late Middle English period, when it was used for forcing someone out of a place or community. The punishment sense, where a school or club removes a member for misconduct, grew naturally from that idea of pushing someone outside a boundary. The same root shows up in other English words. "Propel" drives something forward, "compel" drives people together toward an action, and "repel" drives things back. "Expel" is the outward member of that family, so each word shares the same basic motion of pushing, just in a different direction.

Synonyms: remove, dismiss, eject, banish, oust

Antonyms: admit, welcome, receive, include