blackball

Plural: blackballs

Noun

• the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto
• A rejection; a vote against admitting someone.
• A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote.
• A kind of large black sweet, a black-colored gobstopper.
• A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work.
• A game, a standardized version of the English version of eight-ball.

Verb

• expel from a community or group
• vote against; refuse to endorse; refuse to assent
• To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization.
• To ostracize.

Examples

• If you're not from a moneyed, well-connected family, you can count on getting blackballed from the fraternity.
• Regardless how many other people may have voted to approve a candidate for membership, a single blackball will reject the candidate.

Synonyms

ban, banish, barring, cast out, negative, ostracise, ostracize, shun, veto, black, blackball, blacklist, boycott, brush off, cancel, disregard, dissemble, ignore, misheed, misregard, neglect, niggerball, pass, pass by, pay no heed, put aside, reds and yellows, send to Coventry, shrug off, slough, take no notice of, tune out, unheed, unmind