star out v.
[University of York, England] To replace a user's encrypted
password in /etc/passwd with a single asterisk. Under Unix this
is not a legal encryption of any password; hence the user is not
permitted to log in. In general, accounts like adm, news, and
daemon are permanently "starred out"; occasionally a real user
might have the this inflicted upon him/her as a punishment, e.g.
"Graham was starred out for playing Omega in working hours". Also
occasionally known as The Order Of The Gold Star in this context.
"Don't do that, or you'll be awarded the Order of the Gold
Star..." Compare disusered.