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

And I knew that by the next day, every railroad’s personnel office would have a blackball on me, so I never tried to get another railroad job.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

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

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 Cheneviere, A.

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 Hall, Henry Foljambe

Two blackballs are sufficient to cause the rejection of a candidate.

From American Adventures A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' by Morgan, Wallace

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

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

It has also been reported that the energy security department had already blackballed Greenpeace months ago.

From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2023

The firing blackballed him from future work with the Missile Defense Agency, the lawsuit alleges.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 31, 2023

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

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

Supporters say team owners are blackballing him, and a group rallies outside NFL headquarters in Manhattan.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 6, 2020

By the test of blackballing, only the unknown would survive.

From Mankind in the Making by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)