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blacklist

blacklist

18 5.1
A list of people or companies that others avoid working with
  • noun
  • /ˈblækˌlɪst/
translation icon : lista negra
  • The organization published a blacklist of suppliers that failed to meet ethical standards.
  • terrorist blacklist

Tokyo Electron and WD are backing away from Huawei, which has been struggling with the US trade blacklist over the last month or two.

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Examples

  • The company maintains a strict blacklist of employees who have violated company policies.

  • There is indeed a Hollywood blacklist against conservatives, and our job is to boycott films.

    Blog text (1)
  • I understand you have a blacklist of violent men.

  • We're already on the blacklist.

  • The staff had changing blacklists of women who were no longer allowed inside.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • If you were on the "Hollywood Blacklist," you couldn't get a job working on a movie.

    Blog text (9)
  • An officer of the Gang of Four read his name from a blacklist circulated throughout Shanghai.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Tokyo Electron and WD are backing away from Huawei, which has been struggling with the US trade blacklist over the last month or two.

  • During the McCarthy years, the years of the Hollywood blacklist, paranoia was rampant, and the whole question arose of what it meant to be a patriot.

  • After 1968, the political opponent Pavlek was on the regime's blacklist because he had publicly protested against the Soviets.

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

black book
vsblacklist
14 7.4

A list of people to avoid because they are not trusted or are enemies

is an official list used to ban or exclude individuals
shitlist
vsblacklist
  • Offensive
1 9.9

A list of people someone dislikes and avoids

is more formal and used by authorities to disapprove or ban

Antonyms

65 3.7

Being part of a group, activity, or process

How Excluded

blacklist
18 5.1
watchlist
1 4.3
whitelist
  • Specialized
1 4.4

Surface Forms

blacklist singular
blacklists plural

Morphology

blacklist = black + list (transparent) = black + list

The noun is a direct compound of 'black' (metaphorically negative) + 'list' and denotes a list of disapproved or banned entities in a predictable way.

Etymology

Blacklist joins black and list, where black was often used to mark things as 'wrong' or 'to be avoided'. So a blacklist is a list of people or groups that an authority or group disapproves of or bans.