black

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English [edit]

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The color black
A black cat
A black woman
A black man
A crowd
Four black chess pieces
A cup of black coffee

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology [edit]

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

Adjective [edit]

black (comparative blacker, superlative blackest)

  1. (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and colourless.
  2. (of a place, etc) Without light.
  3. (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various population groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
    • 2012 November 7, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, New York Times:
      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. 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.
  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. (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
  7. (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.
    Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
  8. (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 in fact made of dark blue glass.
  9. (Germany, politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union.
    After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.

Synonyms [edit]

Antonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

absorbing all light
without light
relating to persons of African descent
Bad; evil
Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced
overcrowded
without milk
chess: said of the color opposing "white"
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun [edit]

black (plural blacks)

  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. (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.
  5. (sometimes capitalised) A person of African descent, Aborigine or Maori.
  6. (billiards, snooker, pool, with the) The black ball.
  7. (baseball) The edge of home plate
  8. (UK) a type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
  9. (informal) blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
  10. In chess and similar games, the person playing with the black set of pieces.
    At this point black makes a disastrous move.

Synonyms [edit]

Antonyms [edit]

  • (colour, dye, pen) white

Translations [edit]

colour/color
dye, pigment
pen, pencil, etc
person
billiards, snooker, pool
baseball

Verb [edit]

black (third-person singular simple present blacks, present participle blacking, simple past and past participle blacked)

  1. To make black, to blacken.
    • 1859, Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks [1]
      "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 [2]
      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 [3]
      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 [4]
      ...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 [5]
      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 [6]
      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. (UK) To boycott something or someone, usually as part of an industrial dispute.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to blacken — see blacken

Derived terms [edit]

Related terms [edit]

See also [edit]

Statistics [edit]

French [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From English black.

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

black m and f (plural blacks)

  1. black person
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