Black
[blæk]
Definition
(noun.) black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning); 'the widow wore black'.
(noun.) (board games) the darker pieces.
(noun.) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white).
(noun.) a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose ancestors came from Africa).
(noun.) popular child actress of the 1930's (born in 1928).
(noun.) British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799).
(adj.) marked by anger or resentment or hostility; 'black looks'; 'black words' .
(adj.) of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin especially of sub-Saharan African origin; 'a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization'- Martin Luther King Jr. .
(adj.) extremely dark; 'a black moonless night'; 'through the pitch-black woods'; 'it was pitch-dark in the cellar' .
(adj.) being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light; 'black leather jackets'; 'as black as coal'; 'rich black soil' .
(adj.) (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood; 'a face black with fury' .
(adj.) soiled with dirt or soot; 'with feet black from playing outdoors'; 'his shirt was black within an hour' .
(adj.) (of coffee) without cream or sugar .
(adj.) (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin; 'the stock market crashed on Black Friday'; 'a calamitous defeat'; 'the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign'; 'such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory'- Charles Darwin; 'it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it'- Douglas MacArthur; 'a fateful error' .
(adj.) stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable; 'black deeds'; 'a black lie'; 'his black heart has concocted yet another black deed'; 'Darth Vader of the dark side'; 'a dark purpose'; 'dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility'; 'the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him'-Thomas Hardy .
(adj.) (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame; 'Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands'- Rachel Carson; 'an ignominious retreat'; 'inglorious defeat'; 'an opprobrious monument to human greed'; 'a shameful display of cowardice' .
(adj.) offering little or no hope; 'the future looked black'; 'prospects were bleak'; 'Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult'- J.M.Synge; 'took a dim view of things' .
(adj.) (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading; 'black propaganda' .
(adj.) harshly ironic or sinister; 'black humor'; 'a grim joke'; 'grim laughter'; 'fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit' .
Typist: Rudy--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Destitute of light, or incapable of reflecting it; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest or a very dark color, the opposite of white; characterized by such a color; as, black cloth; black hair or eyes.
(a.) In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds.
(a.) Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible.
(a.) Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen; foreboding; as, to regard one with black looks.
(adv.) Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously; so as to produce blackness.
(n.) That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth has a good black.
(n.) A black pigment or dye.
(n.) A negro; a person whose skin is of a black color, or shaded with black; esp. a member or descendant of certain African races.
(n.) A black garment or dress; as, she wears black
(n.) Mourning garments of a black color; funereal drapery.
(n.) The part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black.
(n.) A stain; a spot; a smooch.
(a.) To make black; to blacken; to soil; to sully.
(a.) To make black and shining, as boots or a stove, by applying blacking and then polishing with a brush.
Inputed by Darlene
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Dark, ebon, inky, atramentous, swarthy, murky, dusky, pitchy, dingy, Cimmerian.[2]. Wicked, atrocious, villanous, heinous, flagitious, diabolic, infernal, hellish, outrageous, monstrous, horrible.
n. [1]. Black color.[2]. Mourning, black garment.[3]. Negro, blackamoor, black man.
Checked by Lemuel
Examples
- Mr. Wopsle in a comprehensive black cloak, being descried entering at the turnpike, the gravedigger was admonished in a friendly way, Look out! Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- Odessa is about twenty hours' run from Sebastopol, and is the most northerly port in the Black Sea. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- It had a pale ruddy sea-bottom, with black crabs and sea-weed moving sinuously under a transparent sea, that passed into flamy ruddiness above. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- He was riding a big gray gelding and he wore a khaki beret, a blanket cape like a poncho, and heavy black boots. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Moreover, he felt he was seen through, and Peter grew black as a thunder-cloud. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- This latter task was becoming more and more difficult, for the blacks had taken to hiding their supply away at night in granaries and living huts. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- The rope sped with singing whir high above the heads of the blacks. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- They said you had gone to join the blacks--that they were your people. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- It must have been done by a party of blacks. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- The blacks have fired the temple, he cried. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- Tom, a ridin' round de country--boots blacked--pass in his pocket--all grand as Cuffee--but who he? Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- The governor, said I, has not yet _blacked_ them enough. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- Again his lordship passed us, and again Lambton growled at him, with his eyes fixed on his own well-blacked shoes. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He paused a moment before Dolph; then spitting a discharge of tobacco-juice on his well-blacked boots, and giving a contemptuous umph, he walked on. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- All the advertisements were blacked out, supposedly to prevent communication in that way with the enemy. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- Mr. Tulkinghorn, an indistinct form against the dark street now dotted with lamps, looms in my Lady's view, bigger and blacker than before. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Senefelder, in his subsequent improvements, gave a slight relief to the letters by the original plan of using diluted aqua-fortis, by which means the impressions obtained were blacker. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- His hair and whiskers were blacker and thicker, looked at so near, than even I had given them credit for being. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- It is just leaning down to you, like a black priest to a blacker penitent. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Peering through the gloom, I saw the vague outline of a man, a shade blacker than the blackness of the open door. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- And yet it would be the blackest treachery to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted to me. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- He eyed me with one of his blackest looks, and thrust his hands savagely into the pockets of his riding-coat. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Her hair was the blackest I ever saw. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The breach of the pilgrims' trace that led to the battle of Badr is the blackest mark against early Islam. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- And yet it opened in the blackest disappointment. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- To oil your boots instead of blacking them, to dust your coat with a switch instead of a brush--was there ever anything more ridiculous? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Why, yes, Sir, said Joe, me and Wopsle went off straight to look at the Blacking Ware'us. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- He had gone out to dinner; but his 'prentice (which is a very clever lad) sent 'em some medicine in a blacking-bottle, offhand. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Bayley's Blacking. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
Checked by Jeannette