exclude

exclude, debar, blackball, eliminate, rule out, shut out, disbar, suspend are comparable when meaning to prevent someone or something from forming part of something else as a member, a constituent, or a factor.

Exclude implies a keeping out of what is already outside; it therefore suggests a prevention of entrance or admission

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exclude light from a room by closing the shutters

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exclude a subject from consideration

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exclude a class from certain privileges

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Debar implies the existence of a barrier which is effectual in excluding someone or something on the outside from entering into a group, body, or system, from enjoying certain privileges, powers, or prerogatives, or from doing what those not so restrained do naturally or easily

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a high wall debarred boys from entering

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the qualifications demanded ... would be likely to debar 99 percent of the secondary school instructors in America— Grandgent

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the Japanese designer was debarred by instinct and tradition from using the resources of texture and of light and shade— Binyon

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Blackball basically implies exclusion from a club or society by vote of its members (originally by putting a black ball into a ballot box)

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he was very nearly blackballed at a West End club of which his birth and social position fully entitled him to become a member— Wilde

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The term has some extended use, but it usually implies a deliberate decision or effort to exclude a person from social, professional, or economic intercourse.

Eliminate differs from the preceding words in implying a getting rid of, or a removal of what is already in, especially as a constituent element or part

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eliminate a quantity from an equation

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eliminate a subject from a curriculum

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eliminate a poison from the system

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it is always wise to eliminate the personal equation from our judgments of literature— J. R. Lowell

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in most poets there is an intermittent conflict between the poetic self and the rest of the man; and it is by reconciling the two, not by eliminating the one, that they can reach their full stature— Day Lewiss

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Rule out may imply either exclusion or elimination, but it usually suggests a formal or authoritative decision

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rule a horse out of a race

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rule out certain candidates for a position

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rule such subjective and moral judgments out of our biology— Kroeber

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Shut out may imply exclusion of something by preventing its entrance or admission

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close the windows to shut out the rain

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or, in sports use, to prevent from scoring

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the home team was shut out in the second game

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Disbar (often confused with debar) implies the elimination by a legal process of a lawyer from the group of those already admitted to practice, thereby depriving him for cause of his status and privileges.

Suspend implies the elimination of a person who is a member of an organization or a student at a school or college, often for a definite period of time and, usually, because of some offense or serious infraction of the rules; the term seldom if ever implies that the case is closed or that readmission is impossible

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suspend ten members of a club for nonpayment of dues

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there was but one course: to suspend the man from the exercise of all priestly functions— Cather

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Analogous words: *hinder, bar, block: preclude, obviate, ward, *prevent: *banish, exile, ostracize, deport

Antonyms: admit (persons): include (things)

Contrasted words: comprehend, embrace, involve (see INCLUDE)