These words refer to the sending away or placing apart of a person, group of people, or thing. In some periods of history, a government could punish a citizen by exiling him, that is, by forcing him to leave the homeland. Although few if any modern nations have such a punishment now, the word has remained in the language as a metaphorical reference to any imposed or voluntary separation from one’s home: Budding artists who exiled themselves to Paris to learn the craft of painting; parents who exile their children to kindergartens simply to be rid of them. Banish has a history similar to exile , but its present-day uses permit a wider range of application, suggesting any forcible removal: the judge ordered the hecklers banished from the courtroom; television commercials that promise that their product can banish washday drudgery, banish bad complexions, or banish acid stomach in a twinkling. Rusticate means to send or banish to the country, and especially, in Great Britain, to punish a university student by suspending him and sending him away temporarily.

Relegate , in reference to people, suggests disposing of them without much concern for their welfare: relegating Aborigines to second-class citizenship; relegating newly elected members to a role of watchful silence. In reference to other matters, relegate suggests their assignment to an unimportant place: relegating his fears to a corner of her mind reserved for the trivial and forgettable.

Deport and expatriate both have present-day technical uses like those that exile and banish once had. Deport refers to the official sending away of someone who is not a citizen: deporting the criminal who had entered the country illegally. Expatriate himself to a country more to his liking; a law to expatriate those who serve in a foreign army.

Sequester means to place apart or separate. It differs from the other words here considered in emphasizing separation rather than the action of sending away: to sequester a construction area in which blasting is necessary. In a related sense, sequester applies to people and is often used reflexively with the meaning of making private or secret or of being secluded.

• She lived a sequestered life in a mountain village; He sequestered himself for the summer in an oceanfront cottage to write his first novel.

The emphasis is still on placing apart, but additional stress is given to the motive ?that of secrecy or seclusion.