Word.ws English Dictionary

shunning

/ˈʃʌnɪŋ/

shunning is the present participle and gerund of shun.

Meaning of shun

Verb

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.
    Synonyms:
    blacklist
  2. (transitive) To escape (a threatening evil, an unwelcome task etc).
    • I'll shun meeting them for as long as possible.
  3. (transitive) To screen, hide.
  4. (transitive) To shove, push.

Noun

shunning (plural shunnings)

  1. The act by which something is shunned; avoidance.
    • His mind began showering him with painful memories, forcing him to relive shunnings that stretched from elementary to high school and a procession of college roommates who'd ignore him after the first week.2003, Nelson Erlick, GermLine, page 100
    • Shunnings divided families, turning sisters and brothers into strangers ... . . even if the shunned one repented and returned home.2004, Beverly Lewis, The Prodigal, page 36

Synonyms of shunning

Forms of shunning

pluralshunnings

Words that rhyme with shunning

Questions about shunning

What does shunning mean?
Shunning means the act by which something is shunned; avoidance.
What is shunning the present participle and gerund of?
Shunning is the present participle and gerund of shun.
What part of speech is shunning?
Shunning is a noun.
How do you pronounce shunning?
Shunning is pronounced /ˈʃʌnɪŋ/.
What is the plural of shunning?
The plural of shunning is shunnings.

Words near shunning in the dictionary

  1. shunned
  2. shunner
  3. shunners
  4. shunnest
  5. shunneth
  6. shunning
  7. shunnings
  8. shunpike
  9. shunpiked
  10. shunpiker
  11. shunpikers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shunning (page history and authors); shun (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-StalJosA-Shunning.wav.

Cite this entry: “shunning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shunning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.