shun

From Middle English shǒnen (“to decline to do, avoid, fear”), from Old English sċunian (“to shun, fear, avoid”), of uncertain origin. Possibly from Proto-West Germanic *skū̌hnōn, *skū̌hnijan, *skeuhnēn (“to frighten, fear”), from Proto-Germanic *skuhaz, *skeuhaz (“timid, fearful, shy”).

Alternatively, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewdʰ- (“to cover, wrap, encase”), from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”); if so, cognate with Old English hȳdan (“to hide, conceal, preserve”).

• IPA^(key): /ʃʌn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌn

shun (third-person singular simple present shuns, present participle shunning, simple past and past participle shunned)

1. (transitive) To avoid, especially persistently; ostracize.

   Acrophobes shun mountaineering.

   • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:

     British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.

2. (transitive) To escape (a threatening evil, an unwelcome task etc).
3. (transitive) To screen, hide.
4. (transitive) To shove, push.

• “shun”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “shun”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

• Huns, USNH, huns

shun

1. Rōmaji transcription of しゅん

shun

1. Nonstandard spelling of shǔn.
2. Nonstandard spelling of shùn.

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.