• Black

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: blăk, IPA: /blæk/
    • Rhymes: -æk

    Origin

    From Middle English black, blak, blake, from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also "ink"), from Proto-Germanic *blakaz ("burnt") (compare Dutch blaken ("to burn"), Old High German blah ("black"), Old Norse blakra ("to blink")), from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- ("to burn, shine") (compare Latin flagrāre ("to burn"), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlox, "flame"), Albanian blozë ("soot"), Sanskrit bharga 'radiance' ). More at bleach.

    Full definition of black

    Adjective

    black

    1. (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
    2. (of a place, etc) Without light.
    3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
      • 2012, November 7, Matt Bai, Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.
    4. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups which have dark pigmentation of the skin.black drinking fountain; black hospital
    5. Bad; evil; ill-omened.
      • 1655, Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168....what a black day would that be, when the Ordinances of Jesus Christ should as it were be excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ.
    6. Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.He shot her a black look.
    7. Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
      • 1866, The Contemporary Review, London: A. Strahan, page 338.Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.
    8. (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
    9. (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
    10. (board games, chess) Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess the set used by the player who moves second) often regardless of the pieces' actual colour.The black pieces in this chess set are made of dark blue glass.
    11. (Germany, politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union.After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.
    12. (secrecy) Relating to a initiative whose existence or exact nature must remain withheld from the general public.5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.

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    Noun

    black

    (plural blacks)
    1. The colour/color perceived in the absence of light.black colour:  
     
      • ShakespeareBlack is the badge of hell,
        The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.
    1. A black dye or pigment.
    2. A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
    3. (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
      • 1625, Francis Bacon, "Of Death", Essays:Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
    4. (sometimes capitalised) A person of African, Aborigine, or Maori descent; a dark-skinned person.
    5. (billiards, snooker, pool, with the) The black ball.
    6. (baseball) The edge of home plate
    7. (British) a type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
    8. (informal) blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
    9. In chess and similar games, the person playing with the black set of pieces.At this point black makes a disastrous move.
    10. Part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black.
      • Sir K. Digbythe black or sight of the eye
    11. (obsolete) A stain; a spot.
      • Rowleydefiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust

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    Verb

    1. To make black, to blacken.#:You come round here again and I'll black your eyes!
    2. To apply blacking to something.
    3. (British) To boycott something or someone, usually as part of an industrial dispute.

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