blackball

Even a popular New York City venue allegedly uses it to blackball people its millionaire owner considers adversaries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 28, 2026

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

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

When she finally gave in, she insisted that I give her four weeks notice or she would blackball me.

From New York Times ● Jan. 20, 2020

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

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

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

But once again, insensible to this detail, the jury seemed scarcely able to find blackballs enough to emphasize their refusal of the "Passage of the Beresina."

From International Short Stories: French by A. Cheneviere

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

“I’d been counted out and blackballed, and now it’s happening just like I told y’all,” Peysoh said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2024

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

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 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

The staffers spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about retaliation or blackballing in the small world of American museums.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2023

“They face industry blackballing and fewer professional opportunities when they speak out,” Williams said.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 23, 2022

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

From Washington Times ● May 30, 2022

The blackballing was Bagenal Daly's doing—" "So I heard," interrupted the other; "they told me that; and here, look here, here's Daly's bond for four thousand six hundred.

From The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. I (of II) by Charles James Lever