blackball

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   A rejection

   A rejection; a vote against admitting someone.

2. 2

   A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote.

   • Regardless how many other people may have voted to approve a candidate for membership, a single blackball will reject the candidate.
3. 3

   A kind of large black sweet, a black-colored gobstopper.

4. ›+ 5 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work.

   2. 5

      A game, a standardized version of the English version of eight-ball.

   3. 6

      To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization.

      • If you're not from a moneyed, well-connected family, you can count on getting blackballed from the fraternity.
      • Why, if I had known you all my life I should have grown up in the condition of Adam before the fall, and they would have blackballed me at the clubs.
   4. 7

      To ostracize.

      • Henry knew. If he were blackballed by this distaff Mafia, he was doomed: Endless, but always justifiable, delays would occur in the work he wanted typed.
      • The actor Katherine Kendall has revealed how the fear of being “blackballed” by Hollywood’s powerbrokers stopped her from making claims of sexual harassment.
   5. 8

      A small town in Grey district, West Coast, New Zealand, with a history of gold and coal…

      A small town in Grey district, West Coast, New Zealand, with a history of gold and coal mining.

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