Etimology
From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc (“black, dark", also "ink”), from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (“burnt”) (compare Dutch blaken (“to burn”), Low German blak, black (“blackness, black paint, (black) ink”), Old High German blah (“black”)), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (“to burn, shine”) (compare Latin flagrāre (“to burn”), Ancient Greek φλόξ (phlóx, “flame”), Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga, “radiance”)). More at bleach.
adjective
black (comparative blacker or more black, superlative blackest or most black)
(of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
(of a place, etc) Without light.
(sometimes capitalized) Belonging to or descended from any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. (See usage notes below.)
(chiefly historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups (as described above).
(card games, of a card) Of the spades or clubs suits. Compare red (“of the hearts or diamonds suit”)
Bad; evil; ill-omened.
Expressing menace or discontent; threatening; sullen.
(of objects, markets, etc) Illegitimate, illegal, or disgraced.
Foul; dirty, soiled.
(Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
(of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.
(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).
(politics) Anarchist; of or pertaining to anarchism.
(typography) Said of a symbol or character that is solid, filled with color. Compare white (“said of a character or symbol outline, not filled with color”).
(politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.
Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
(Ireland, now derogatory) Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic. (Compare blackmouth ("Presbyterian").)
Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc.) that is dark (or black).
Examples
Somebody tell me, what can I do / Something is holding me back / Is it because I'm black?
I believed that a huge injustice had been perpetrated for hundreds of years on every black man, woman, and child in the United States.
I am a young, light-skinned black woman, and truer words were never written of the problem we light-skinned blacks have had to live with. The article explains in-depth what it's like.
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.
black drinking fountain; black hospital
I was dealt two red queens, and he got one of the black queens.
black magic
[…] 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.
Nor were there wanting some, who, after the departure of Jenny, insinuated that she was spirited away with a design too black to be mentioned, and who gave frequent hints that a legal inquiry ought to be made into the whole matter, and that some people should be forced to produce the girl.
She had seen so much of the blacker side of human nature that blackness no longer startled her as it should do.
He shot her a black look.
The lassie had grace given her to refuse, but with a woeful heart, and Heriotside rode off in black discontent, leaving poor Ailie to sigh her love. He came back the next day and the next, but aye he got the same answer.
We see the impression that the perils of these unknown seas made on Minoan art in a clay seal impression that comes from Knossos. A sea monster, with head and jaws like a dog's, is rising from the waves and attacking a boatman who stands defending himself in his skiff. […] This is the black side of the sense of "the magic and the mystery of the sea" that finds a lighter expression in the octopus and sea-shell designs of the vases, and the flying fish on porcelain and frescoes.
Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.
Then trip him, that his heeles may kicke at Heauen, And that his Soule may be as damn'd aud blacke As Hell, whereto it goes.
Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
The black pieces in this chess set are made of dark blue glass.
Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ ; ☛
After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.
5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.
black operations/black ops, black room, black site
Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all.
But a hel-rúne was one who knew secret black knowledge – and the association of hell with the dead shows that the gloss in O.H.G. 'necromancia' is very close.
the Black North
the Royal Black Institution
There is a district, comprehending Donegal, the interior of the county of Derry, and the western side of Tyrone, which is emphatically called by the people "the Black North," an expression not meant, as I conceive, to mark its greater exposure to the westerly winds, but rather its dreary aspect.
Even in the "black North"—in " Protestant Ulster"—Catholicity is progressing at a rate that must strike terror into its enemies, and impart pride and hope to the professors of the faith of our sainted forefathers.
To the southern Nationalist the north was chiefly known as the home of the most rabid religious and political intolerance perhaps in the whole Christian world; it was designated by the comprehensive title of the 'Black North.'
Now April's brother, once also holding a commission in that regiment, was an Ulster Volunteer, her father a staunch, black Protestant, her family tremulously "loyal" to the country whose Parliament was turning them out of its councils.
He [Sir John Henry Biggart] was personally amused at having once been called "a black bastard".
He had been playing Gaelic football for Lisnaskea Emmets, his local team in County Fermanagh, against a team from nearby Brookeborough, when someone from the opposing team called him a ‘black cunt’. ‘Black’, in this case, was a reference not to the colour of his skin but to his religion. It is short for ‘Black Protestant’, a long-standing term of sectarian abuse.
the black knight, black bile
black birch, black locust, black rhino
Related words
synonyms
(dark and colourless): dark; swart; see also Thesaurus:black
(without light): dark, gloomy, pitch-black
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "dark and colourless"): white, nonblack, unblack
(antonym(s) of "without light"): bright, illuminated, lit
related terms
blackamoor
blackavised
blackberry (Ribes nigrum)
blackbird
blacken
blackness
forblack
noun
black (countable and uncountable, plural blacks)
(countable and uncountable) The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
(countable and uncountable) A black dye or pigment.
(countable) A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
(in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
(sometimes capitalised, countable, often offensive) A member of descendant of any of various (African, Aboriginal, etc) ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin. (See usage notes.)
(informal) Blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups.
(billiards, snooker, pool, countable) The black ball.
(baseball, countable) The edge of home plate.
(British, countable) A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
(informal, countable) Short for blackcurrant, especially (chiefly UK) as syrup or crème de cassis used for cocktails.
(in chess and similar games, countable) The person playing with the black set of pieces.
(countable) Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
(obsolete, countable) A stain; a spot.
A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
(US, slang) Marijuana.
Examples
black:
Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.
Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
"How! They surely cannot pretend that the black is an Englishman?" "There are all kinds of Englishmen, black and white, when seamen grow scarce. […] "
But presently the negro seized the Hindoo by the throat; the Hindoo just pricked him in the arm with his knife, and the next moment his own head was driven against the side of the cabin with a stunning crack […] The cabin was now full, and Sharpe was for putting both the blacks in irons.
Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks, accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters.
black don't crack
Pernod and black... snakebite and black... cider and black...
At this point black makes a disastrous move.
the black or sight of the eye
defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust
Related words
synonyms
(colour or absence of light): blackness
(person): See Thesaurus:person of color
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "colour"): white
verb
black (third-person singular simple present blacks, present participle blacking, simple past and past participle blacked)
(transitive) To make black; to blacken.
(transitive) To apply blacking to (something).
(British, transitive) To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
Examples
"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."
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.
I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye.
[…] he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans .
But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?"
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.
The plants were blacked by the Transport and General Workers' Union and a consumer boycott was organised; both activities contributed to what the union saw as a victory.
Related words
synonyms
(make black): blacken, darken, swarten
(boycott): blackball, blacklist; see also Thesaurus:boycott