black

adjective

lacking hue and brightness; absorbing light without reflecting any of the rays composing it.

characterized by absence of light; enveloped in darkness: a black night.

( sometimes initial capital letter )

pertaining or belonging to any of the various populations characterized by dark skin pigmentation, specifically the dark-skinned peoples of Africa, Oceania, and Australia.

African American.

soiled or stained with dirt: That shirt was black within an hour.

gloomy; pessimistic; dismal: a black outlook.

deliberately; harmful; inexcusable: a black lie.

boding ill; sullen or hostile; threatening: black words; black looks.

(of coffee or tea) without milk or cream.

without any moral quality or goodness; evil; wicked: His black heart has concocted yet another black deed.

10.

indicating censure, disgrace, or liability to punishment: a black mark on one's record.

11.

marked by disaster or misfortune: black areas of drought; Black Friday.

12.

wearing black or dark clothing or armor: the black prince.

13.

based on the grotesque, morbid, or unpleasant aspects of life: black comedy; black humor.

14.

(of a check mark, flag, etc.) done or written in black to indicate, as on a list, that which is undesirable, sub-standard, potentially dangerous, etc.: Pilots put a black flag next to the ten most dangerous airports.

15.

illegal or underground: The black economy pays no taxes.

16.

showing a profit; not showing any losses: the first black quarter in two years.

17.

deliberately false or intentionally misleading: black propaganda.

18.

British. boycotted, as certain goods or products by a trade union.

19.

(of steel) in the form in which it comes from the rolling mill or forge; unfinished.

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noun

20.

the color at one extreme end of the scale of grays, opposite to white, absorbing all light incident upon it. Compare white ( def 19 ).

21.

( sometimes initial capital letter )

a member of any of various dark-skinned peoples, especially those of Africa, Oceania, and Australia.

African American.

22.

black clothing, especially as a sign of mourning: He wore black at the funeral.

23.

Chess, Checkers. the dark-colored men or pieces or squares.

24.

black pigment: lamp black.

25.

Slang. black beauty.

26.

a horse or other animal that is entirely black.

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to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

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verb (used with object)

27.

to make black; put black on; blacken.

28.

British. to boycott or ban.

29.

to polish (shoes, boots, etc.) with blacking.

verb (used without object)

30.

to become black; take on a black color; blacken.

adverb

31.

(of coffee or tea) served without milk or cream.

Verb phrases

32.

black out,

to lose consciousness: He blacked out at the sight of blood.

to erase, obliterate, or suppress: News reports were blacked out.

to forget everything relating to a particular event, person, etc.: When it came to his war experiences he blacked out completely.

Theater. to extinguish all of the stage lights.

to make or become inoperable: to black out the radio broadcasts from the U.S.

Military. to obscure by concealing all light in defense against air raids.

Radio and Television. to impose a broadcast blackout on (an area).

to withdraw or cancel (a special fare, sale, discount, etc.) for a designated period: The special air fare discount will be blacked out by the airlines over the holiday weekend.

Idioms

33.

black and white,

print or writing: I want that agreement in black and white.

a monochromatic picture done with black and white only.

a chocolate soda containing vanilla ice cream.

34.

black or white, completely either one way or another, without any intermediate state.

35.

in the black, operating at a profit or being out of debt ( opposed to in the red ): New production methods put the company in the black.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English blak, Old English blæc; cognate with Old High German blah-; akin to Old Norse blakkr black, blek ink

Related forms

black·ish, adjective

black·ish·ly, adverb

black·ish·ness, noun

non·black, adjective, noun

un·blacked, adjective

well-blacked, adjective

Synonyms
1. dark, dusky; sooty, inky; swart, swarthy; sable, ebony. 4. dirty, dingy. 5. sad, depressing, somber, doleful, mournful, funereal. 7. disastrous, calamitous. 9. sinful, inhuman, fiendish, devilish, infernal, monstrous; atrocious, horrible; nefarious, treacherous, traitorous, villainous.

Antonyms
1. white. 4. clean. 5. hopeful, cheerful.

Usage note
3, 21. Black, colored, and Negro have all been used to describe or name the dark-skinned African peoples or their descendants. Colored, now somewhat old-fashioned, is often offensive, although describing someone as “a person of color” is not. In the late 1950s and early 1960s black began to replace Negro and today is a widely used term. Common as an adjective (black woman, man, American, people, etc.), black is also used as a noun, especially in the plural. Like other terms referring to skin color (white, yellow), black is usually not capitalized, except in proper names or titles (Black Muslim; Black English). In the appropriate meanings African American is increasingly used instead of black.

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

Hugo Lafayette, 1886–1971, U.S. political official: associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 1937–71.

(Sir) James Whyte [hwahyt, wahyt] , born 1924, English pharmacologist: Nobel prize 1988.

Joseph, 1728–99, Scottish physician and chemist.

Shirley Temple, Temple, Shirley.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To black

Collins

World English Dictionary

black (blæk)

—*adj*
1.	Compare white of the colour of jet or carbon black, having no hue due to the absorption of all or nearly all incident light
2.	without light; completely dark
3.	without hope or alleviation; gloomy: the future looked black
4.	very dirty or soiled: black factory chimneys
5.	angry or resentful: she gave him black looks
6.	(of a play or other work) dealing with the unpleasant realities of life, esp in a pessimistic or macabre manner: black comedy
7.	(of coffee or tea) without milk or cream
8.	causing, resulting from, or showing great misfortune: black areas of unemployment
9.	a. wicked or harmful: a black lie
	b. (in combination): black-hearted
10.	causing or deserving dishonour or censure: a black crime
11.	(of the face) purple, as from suffocation
12.	(Brit) (of goods, jobs, works, etc) being subject to boycott by trade unionists, esp in support of industrial action elsewhere

—n
13.	a black colour
14.	a dye or pigment of or producing this colour
15.	black clothing, worn esp as a sign of mourning
16.	chess, draughts
	a. a black or dark-coloured piece or square
	b. (usually capital) the player playing with such pieces
17.	complete darkness: the black of the night
18.	a black ball in snooker, etc
19.	(in roulette and other gambling games) one of two colours on which players may place even bets, the other being red
20.	in the black in credit or without debt
21.	archery a black ring on a target, between the outer and the blue, scoring three points

—vb
22.	another word for blacken
23.	(tr) to polish (shoes, etc) with blacking
24.	(tr) to bruise so as to make black: he blacked her eye
25.	(Brit), (Austral), (NZ) (tr) (of trade unionists) to organize a boycott of (specified goods, jobs, work, etc), esp in support of industrial action elsewhere

[Old English blæc; related to Old Saxon blak ink, Old High German blakra to blink]

'blackish

—*adj*

'blackishly

—*adv*

'blackly

—*adv*

'blackness

—n

Black¹ (blæk)

—n
1.	a member of a human population having dark pigmentation of the skin

—*adj*
2.	of or relating to a Black person or Black people: a Black neighbourhood

usage Talking about a Black or Blacks is considered offensive and it is better to talk about a Black person, Black people

Black² (blæk)

—n
1.	Sir James (Whyte). born 1924, British biochemist. He discovered beta-blockers and drugs for peptic ulcers: Nobel prize for physiology or medicine 1988
2.	Joseph. 1728--99, Scottish physician and chemist, noted for his pioneering work on carbon dioxide and heat

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

black

O.E. blæc "black, dark," from P.Gmc. *blakaz "burned" (cf. O.N. blakkr "dark," O.H.G. blah "black," Swed. bläck "ink," Du. blaken "to burn"), from PIE *bhleg- "to burn, gleam, shine, flash" (cf. Gk. phlegein "to burn, scorch," L. flagrare "to blaze, glow, burn"), from base *bhel- (1);

see bleach. The same root produced O.E. blac "bright, shining, glittering, pale;" the connecting notions being, perhaps, "fire" (bright) and "burned" (dark). The usual O.E. word for "black" was sweart (see swart). According to OED: "In ME. it is often doubtful whether blac, blak, blake, means 'black, dark,' or 'pale, colourless, wan, livid.' " Adjective used of dark-skinned people in O.E. The noun in this sense is first attested 1620s (blackamoor is from 1540s; see moor). Of coffee, first attested 1796. Sense of "dark purposes, malignant" emerged 1580s (e.g. black art). To be in the black (1928) is from the accounting practice of recording credits and balances in black ink.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

Black (blāk), Sir James Whyte. Born 1924.

British pharmacologist. He shared a 1988 Nobel Prize for developing drugs to treat heart disease and stomach and duodenal ulcers.

American Heritage

Science Dictionary

Black

(blāk) Pronunciation Key
British pharmacologist who discovered the first beta-blocker, which led to the development of safer and more effective drugs to treat high blood pressure and heart disease. Black also developed a blocker for gastric acid production that revolutionized the treatment of stomach ulcers. He shared with Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings the 1988 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

Black, Joseph 1728-1799.
British chemist who in 1756 discovered carbon dioxide, which he called "fixed air." In addition to further studies of carbon dioxide, Black formulated the concepts of latent heat and heat capacity.

Slang Dictionary

black definition

mod.
without cream or milk. (Said of coffee.) : Black coffee, good and hot, please.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Easton

Bible Dictionary

Black definition

properly the absence of all colour. In Prov. 7:9 the Hebrew word means, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "the pupil of the eye." It is translated "apple" of the eye in Deut. 32:10; Ps. 17:8; Prov. 7:2. It is a different word which is rendered "black" in Lev. 13:31,37; Cant. 1:5; 5:11; and Zech. 6:2, 6. It is uncertain what the "black marble" of Esther 1:6 was which formed a part of the mosaic pavement.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

black

In addition to the idioms beginning with black, also see dirty (black) look; in the red (black); look black; paint black; pot calling the kettle black.