Etymology

Adjective

1. absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and colourless.
2. without light.
3. Relating to persons of African descent or (especially in the US) their culture.
4. Bad; evil.
   • 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.

5. 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.

6. Overcrowded.
7. Lacking cream, milk and creamer.
8. The standard denomination of the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the black set, no matter what the actual colour.

   The black pieces in this set are in fact made of dark blue glass.

Noun

1. The colour/color perceived in the absence of light.

   black colour:

2. A black dye, pigment.
3. A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
4. A person of African descent.
5. the black: The black ball.
6. The edge of home plate
7. a type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.

Synonyms

• • blackness
  • African American , Afro-American , person of color or person of colour
  • Negro
  • coon, darkie or darky, nigger

Verb

1. To make black, to blacken.

1. • 1859: Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=506735625&tag=Optic,+Oliver:+Poor+and+proud;+or,+The+fortunes+of+Katy+Redburn,+a+story+for+young+folks,+1859&query=+black+your&id=OptPoor

     "I don't want to fight; but you are a mean, dirty blackguard, or you wouldn't have treated a girl like that," replied Tommy, standing as stiff as a stake before the bully.

     "Say that again, and I'll black your eye for you."

   • 1911: Edna Ferber, Buttered Side Down http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=302756157&tag=Ferber,+Edna:+Buttered+Side+Down,+1911&query=+black+your&id=FerButt

     Ted, you can black your face, and dye your hair, and squint, and some fine day, sooner or later, somebody'll come along and blab the whole thing.

   • 1922: John Galsworthy, A Family Man: In Three Acts http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00645065&id=vw6G-rbudVUC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%22black+his+eye%22&as_brr=1

     I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye.

2. To apply blacking to something.
   • 1853: Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=600775507&tag=Stowe,+Harriet+Beecher:+The+Key+to+Uncle+Tom's+Cabin,+1853&query=+black+his&id=StoKeyu

     ...he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy boots).

   • 1861: George William Curtis, Trumps: A Novel http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=160888866&tag=EAF538&query=+black+your&id=eaf538

     But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?"

   • 1911: Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=91865750&tag=Beerbohm,+Max,+Sir,+1872-1956:+Zuleika+Dobson,+1911&query=+black+your&id=BeeZule

     Loving you, I could conceive no life sweeter than hers -- to be always near you; to black your boots, carry up your coals, scrub your doorstep; always to be working for you, hard and humbly and without thanks.

3. To boycott something or someone, usually as part of an industrial dispute.

Related terms

• café noir
• calamander
• chernozem

• melancholy
• melena
• nigrescence

• nigrosine
• rouge et noir
• skean-dhu