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blacklist

[ blak-list ]
/ ˈblækˌlɪst /
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noun
a list of persons under suspicion, disfavor, censure, etc.: His record as an anarchist put him on the government's blacklist.
a list privately exchanged among employers, containing the names of persons to be barred from employment because of untrustworthiness or for holding opinions considered undesirable.
a list drawn up by a labor union, containing the names of employers to be boycotted for unfair labor practices.
verb (used with object)
to put (a person, group, company, etc.) on a blacklist.
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Compare whitelist.

Origin of blacklist

First recorded in 1610–20; black + list1

Words nearby blacklist

black letter, black-letter day, black light, black-light trap, black liquor, blacklist, Black Lives Matter, black locust, black look, black lung, blackly
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Words related to blacklist

banish, blackball, expel, ostracize, snub, bar, boycott, debar, exclude, preclude, proscribe, reject, repudiate, hit list, thumbs-down

How to use blacklist in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for blacklist

blacklist
/ (ˈblækˌlɪst) /
noun
a list of persons or organizations under suspicion, or considered untrustworthy, disloyal, etc, esp one compiled by a government or an organization
verb
(tr) to put on a blacklist

Derived forms of blacklist

blacklisting, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for blacklist

blacklist

Concerted action by employers to deny employment to someone suspected of unacceptable opinions or behavior. For example, individual workers suspected of favoring labor unions have often been blacklisted by all the employers in a region.

notes for blacklist

During the McCarthy era (see Joseph P. McCarthy) in the 1950s, the careers of many public figures suspected of communist activities were ruined by blacklisting.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with blacklist

black list

A list of persons or things considered undesirable or deserving punishment, as in Japanese beetles are on my black list of garden pests. The practice of making such lists is quite old. Notorious examples include the late 19th-century black lists of union members whom employers would not hire and the black lists of persons suspected of being Communists as a result of the hearings held by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy in the early 1950s. Today the term is also used more loosely, as in the example. [Early 1600s] Also see black book, def. 1.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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