different between blackball vs forbid

English

Etymology

black +? ball

Pronunciation

• enPR: bl?k'bôl', IPA^(key): /?blækb??l/

Noun

blackball (countable and uncountable, plural blackballs)

1. (countable) A rejection; a vote against admitting someone.
2. (countable) A black ball used to indicate such a negative vote.

3. (countable) A kind of large black sweet; a niggerball.
4. A substance for blacking shoes, boots, etc. or for taking impressions of engraved work.
5. (uncountable) A game, a standardized version of the English version of eight-ball.

   Synonym: reds and yellows

Verb

blackball (third-person singular simple present blackballs, present participle blackballing, simple past and past participle blackballed)

1. (transitive) To vote against, especially in an exclusive organization.
2. (transitive) To ostracize.

   Synonyms: blacklist, send to Coventry; see also Thesaurus:ignore, Thesaurus:boycott

English

Etymology

From Middle English forbeden, from Old English forb?odan (“to forbid, prohibit, restrain, refuse, repeal, annul”), from Proto-Germanic *furibeudan?, from *furi + *beudan?. Equivalent to for- (“from, away”) +? bid (“to offer, proclaim”). Cognate with Dutch verbieden (“to forbid”), German verbieten (“to forbid”), Danish forbyde (“to forbid”),Norwegian Bokmål forby (“to forbid”), Swedish förbjuda (“to forbid”), Gothic ???????????????????????????????????????? (faurbiudan). Related to forbode.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /f??b?d/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??b?d/
• Rhymes: -?d

Verb

forbid (third-person singular simple present forbids, present participle forbidding, simple past forbid or forbade or forbad, past participle forbidden)

1. (transitive) To disallow; to proscribe.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     […] the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one's friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever.

2. (ditransitive) To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.
3. (transitive) To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.

   • a blaze of glory that forbids the sight

4. (transitive, obsolete) To accurse; to blast.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To defy; to challenge.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of L. Andrews to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Especially when talking about a person, the expression is not allowed to is much more common than the very formal is forbidden to/is forbidden from.
• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive or the gerund (-ing) when the person is mentioned from whom something is forbidden, and it takes the gerund (-ing) when such a person is not mentioned. See Appendix:English catenative verbs. Examples:
  • The management forbids employees from smoking/to smoke in the office. (Active; those subject to prohibition are identified)
  • Employees are forbidden from smoking/to smoke in the office. (Passive; those subject to prohibition are identified)
  • The management forbids smoking in the office. (Active; those subject to prohibition are not identified)
  • Smoking in the office is forbidden. (Passive; those subject to prohibition are not identified)

Synonyms

• prohibit
• disallow
• ban
• veto
• See also Thesaurus:prohibit

Derived terms

• forbiddance
• forbidding

Translations

References

• forbid in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• forbid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.