Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (1823-1897) was a British land agent whose ostracisation by his local community in Ireland as part of a political campaign in 1880 gave the English language the verb to boycott, meaning 'to ostracise'.

Charles Boycott was born in Norfolk in 1823. He came to Ireland to work as a land agent for Lord Erne, the local landowner in the Lough Mask area. As part of its campaign for the 3Fs (fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale) to protect tenants from exploitation, the Irish Land League under Michael Davitt withdrew the local labour required to save the harvest on Lord Erne's estate. When Boycott tried to undermine the campaign the League launched a campaign of isolation against him in the local community. Neighbours would not talk to him. Shops would not serve him. People in church would not talk to him or sit near him. His physical safety was also threatened.

The campaign against Boycott became a cause celebré in the British media, with newspapers sending correspondents to the west of Ireland to highlight what they viewed as the victimisation of a servant of a peer of the realm by Irish peasants. Unionists travelled to Lord Erne's estate to help save the harvest, while a regiment of the British Army was also sent to bring in the harvest.

Boycott left Ireland soon after. His name however became immortalised by the creation of the verb to boycott, meaning 'to ostracise'.

Boycotting became a standard method of non-violent civic and political disobedience, practiced by Mahatma Gandhi, by anti-Nazis during World War II and during the civil rights campaigns in the United States and Northern Ireland in the 1960s.