blackball
/ˈblakbɔːl
/verb [with object]
Reject (a candidate applying to become a member of a private club), typically by means of a secret ballot: her husband was blackballed when he tried to join the Country Club...
- After all, the intellectual loner who sneers at the affairs of lesser men hardly tallies with the man whose membership application for the club was recently blackballed by four members.
- He was almost blackballed from the Alpine Club and on one occasion even assaulted.
- In theory at least, any one of its 148 members could blackball an agreement.
Synonyms
reject, debar, bar, ban, vote against, blacklist, exclude, shut out, leave out in the cold;
expel, drum out, oust, cashier, ostracize, repudiate;
boycott, snub, shun, spurn, cold-shoulder, give the cold shoulder to;
North American disfellowship
Origin
Late 18th century: from the practice of registering an adverse vote by placing a black ball in a ballot box.