To refuse to buy, use, or take part in something as a way to protest or force change.
Named after Captain Charles Boycott, a 19th-century Irish land agent whom local people socially and economically shunned during a dispute. His name became the general word for organized refusal.
“Boycott” is one of those rare words that comes straight from a person’s last name—language turned a man into a protest strategy. Every modern boycott quietly repeats a 19th‑century Irish land conflict.
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