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blackball

[blak-bawl] / ˈblækˌbɔl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Ms McKinney said modelling opportunities began to decline for her and she believed Mr Combs used his influence to "blackball" her in the industry.

From BBC ● May 22, 2024

Daniels told “Raq Rants” in 2018 that he did not blackball Mo’Nique.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2022

Regarding the charge from many of his accusers that he threatened to derail their careers if they spoke out: “I couldn’t blackball anybody, because if I said, ‘Don’t use that actress’ .

From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2020

NBA superstars like LeBron James and Steph Curry are impervious to this kind of treatment, in part because the NBA didn’t campaign to blackball them.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 5, 2019

Early in his career Owen used his influence at the Zoological Society to blackball a young man named Robert Grant whose only crime was to have shown promise as a fellow anatomist.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

While that blackballs the firms, it does not ban all business dealings, the report added.

From Reuters ● Mar. 25, 2022

I buy licorice whips, jelly beans, many-layered blackballs with the seed in the middle, packages of fizzy sherbet you suck up through a straw.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Of all candidates at a club a known quarreller is more sure of blackballs now than even in the times when such a one provoked duels.

From Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope

Julius Cæsar Conway;—a great friend of mine, and therefore he always blackballs my other friends at the club.

From Phineas Finn The Irish Member by Anthony Trollope

Napoleon sees in this remark a germ of aggression on behalf of his House of Commons, more especially when emphasised by 125 blackballs against a Government Bill.

From Napoleon's Letters to Josephine by Henry Foljambe Hall

Then again, maybe that’s a popcorn kernel for critics and other nerds, like another episode’s throwaway line from a former journalist who says she got blackballed for sucker-punching Rex Reed.

From Salon ● May 8, 2025

Second, unlike Kennan’s memo, Merry’s was at odds with U.S. policy and was ignored, then buried, and its author was blackballed, by the policymakers at the time.

From Slate ● Dec. 23, 2024

She also said he had subsequently "blackballed" her in the modelling world.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2024

It happened after a Muhammad Ali fight back in 1970 when he couldn’t get sanctioned to fight anywhere; he’d been blackballed because of his stance against the Vietnam War.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2024

If he’s not careful, he’ll be blackballed by his state medical association and kept out of the hospitals.”

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

And the reason for that compulsive work ethic was her unofficial blackballing by “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson, for the crime of accepting Fox's offer to host her own talk show.

From Salon ● May 14, 2025

Mr. Krikorian says he’s been facing that sort of ideological blackballing for years.

From Washington Times ● May 30, 2022

“This trend of big banks blackballing Alaska investment is dangerous to Alaska’s economic future,” Sullivan said in an interview Friday.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 24, 2020

He won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2019 after he accused the league of blackballing him because of his protests.

From New York Times ● Sep. 13, 2020

If I blackball her, I'm blackballing our contract with Eltron; and matters of contract, or economics, or whatall, are not supposed to be subject to veto.

From The Way of Decision by M. C. Pease


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