blacklist

1 of 2

noun

black·​list ˈblak-ˌlist 

1

: a list of persons who are disapproved of or are to be punished or boycotted

2

: a list of banned or excluded things of disreputable character

a domain-name blacklist

… helped the government keep marijuana on the blacklist.

—Cynthia Cotts

blacklist

2 of 2

verb

blacklisted; blacklisting; blacklists

transitive verb

: to put on a blacklist

blacklister noun

Examples of blacklist in a Sentence

Noun

He's on the FBI's blacklist.

The rental company has created a blacklist of bad drivers.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Last week, the U.S. expanded restrictions on sales of semiconductors and related manufacturing equipment to China and added 140 Chinese entities to a blacklist that limits trade with U.S. businesses on national security concerns. —Stephanie Yang, Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2024

Then, reporters, wanting to know if there was some sort of blacklist of journalists, filed public records requests. —East Bay Times Editorial, The Mercury News, 25 Oct. 2024

Verb

Johnson, meanwhile, touted measures that would prohibit the Department of Defense from working with vendors that have boycotted Israel and banning the Pentagon from contracting with advertising firms that blacklist conservative news sources. —Brad Dress, The Hill, 11 Dec. 2024

In fact, both sides of the Israel divide say they are being boycotted and blacklisted as the conflict drags on in its second year and claim that secret dossiers are being kept by opposing camps to document who is deemed unhireable. —Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 5 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1624, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1702, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

blacklist

noun

black·​list

ˈblak-ˌlist

: a list of persons who are disapproved of and are to be punished

blacklist verb