black-ball, ˈblackball, n.
1. A composition, also called heel-ball, used by shoemakers, etc., and also for taking rubbings of brasses and the like.
| 1847 in Craig. |
2. A black ball of wood, ivory, etc. put into the urn or ballot-box to express an adverse vote; hence, an adverse secret vote, recorded in any way.
| 1869 Spectator 3 July 779 They have exercised precisely the same right which is exercised by every man who drops a blackball into the urn. 1884 Harper's Mag. June 148/2 Three blackballs used to make a gentleman wince. |
3. dial. A hard sweetmeat. Also, in N.Z., spec. a humbug.
| 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 203/2 ‘Hard-bake’,..‘black balls’,..and ‘squibs’ are all made of treacle. 1877 N. & Q. VIII. 481 ‘Black-ball’ is a delicacy compounded of black treacle and sugar boiled together in a pan. 1943 Amer. Speech XVIII. 87 The peppermints described in England as humbugs become blackballs in New Zealand. 1957 J. Frame Owls do Cry xi. 47 Also a sixpenny shout from her pay for blackballs or acid drops or aniseed balls. |