a list of persons under suspicion, disfavor, censure, etc.:
His record as an anarchist put him on the government's blacklist.
2.
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.
3.
a list drawn up by a labor union, containing the names of employers to be boycotted for unfair labor practices.
verb (used with object)
4.
to put (a person, group, company, etc.) on a blacklist.
also black-list, black list, "list of persons who have incurred suspicion," 1610s, from black (adj.), here indicative of disgrace, censure, punishment (attested from 1590s, in black book) + list (n.). Specifically of employers' list of workers considered troublesome (usually for union activity) is from 1888. As a verb, from 1718. Related: Blacklisted; blacklisting.
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.
Note: 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.
To punish someone by denial of work, boycotting of products, etc •Both terms come fr the 1700s and meant ''to ostracize''; the modern specialized sense appears to have developed in the labor troubles of the 1890s: Some members of the Twilight Zone movie crew say they are being blackballed
blacklist
noun
A list of banned or undesirable people: the blacklist for the event
verb
To put someone's name on a list of the banned or undesirable: blacklisted during college
The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D. Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers. Cite This Source
