blackball
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.
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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
The attempt to blackball Froome from racing may prove futile but it is as much about commercial realities – TV revenues, sponsors’ sensibilities, merchandise and marketing – as it is about ethics.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 1, 2018
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
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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
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Six blackballs shall exclude, and at least one-third of the members must vote in the affirmative to elect.
From American Big Game in Its Haunts by Various
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
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
That will make it possible to identify potential vetoes but not which country blackballed any given candidate.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
In an unpublished article titled “Das Kannibal,” Mitchell wrote angrily about being blackballed for speaking out against the war.
From Slate ● Jun. 6, 2025
“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
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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
“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
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
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