What is "blackball"

Blackball \Black"ball`\, n.

1. A composition for blacking shoes, boots, etc.; also, one for taking impressions of engraved work.

2. A ball of black color, esp. one used as a negative in voting; -- in this sense usually two words.

Blackball \Black"ball`\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blackballed; p. pr. & vb. n. Blackballing.]

1. To vote against, by putting a black ball into a ballot box; to reject or exclude, as by voting against with black balls; to ostracize.

   He was blackballed at two clubs in succession.
   --Thackeray.

2. To blacken (leather, shoes, etc.) with blacking.

also black-ball, "to exclude from a club by adverse votes," 1770, from black (adj.) + ball (n.1). Black balls of wood or ivory dropped into an urn during secret ballots.

n. 1 A rejection, a vote against admitting someone. 2 A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote. 3 the act of so rejecting someone. 4 A kind of large black sweet; a niggerball. 5 A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization. 2 (context transitive English) To ostracize.

1. n. the act of excluding someone by a negative vote or veto [syn: barring]

2. v. expel from a community or group [syn: banish, ban, ostracize, ostracise, shun, cast out]

3. vote against; refuse to endorse; refuse to assent; "The President vetoed the bill" [syn: veto, negative]

Blackball, black-ball, black ball or blackballing may refer to:

• Blackballing, ostracizing someone socially
• Blackball, New Zealand, a small town located on the western coast of the South Island of New Zealand
  • Blackball Branch a branch railway line to Blackball, New Zealand

Blackball is a 2003 British sports comedy film. Tim Firth wrote the screenplay, and it was directed by Mel Smith. Its fictional plot is based on the bowls player Griff Sanders.

Blackball (sometimes written black ball or black-ball) is a pool (pocket billiards) game that is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain, Malta, South Africa, Australia, and some other countries. In the UK and Ireland it is usually called simply "pool". The game is played with sixteen balls (a and fifteen usually unnumbered ) on a small (6 ft x 3 ft or 7 ft x 4 ft) pool table with six .

Blackball is an internationally standardised variation of the popular bar and club game eightball pool (a.k.a. eight-ball pool or 8-ball pool), closely related to the originally American and now professionally internationalised game eight-ball. The two main sets of playing rules are those of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA, the International Olympic Committee-recognised governing body of pool) and its affiliate the European Blackball Association (EBA), known as "blackball rules", and the older code of the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF), often referred to as "world rules" or the "eightball pool rules".

Blackball is a term used to describe a flag on a Lifeguard Tower or other highly visible area to show surfers that they must clear the water. A blackball flag is represented with a black circle in the center of a yellow or red flag, with the yellow flag being most common. Blackball is a contentious idea to some, being that it gives space to swimmers at the expense of surfers, but is designed to protect swimmers from potentially harmful Boards that may be coming at high velocities after a "wipe out" from a wave.

Swimmers maintain this is a safety measure, while surfers contend that Blackball is an attempt to cull the in-water population in certain zones by creating dual classes of citizens (with surfers always being the ones demanded to leave), thus giving preferential treatment to swimmers.

Newport Beach, California has regular headlines regarding the use of blackball and dedicates a section of their official government site to the issue. US House Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Southern California politician Michael B. Glenn have both made campaign issues out of the Blackball implementation. Rohrabacher made note that Newport Beach was the only city who practiced Blackball and also did not have a dedicated area for surf use.