blackout

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Blackout, black-out, Black-out, and black out

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From the verb phrase black out.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈblæk.aʊt/
  • (Canadian raising) IPA(key): /ˈblæk.ʌʊt/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun[edit]

blackout (plural blackouts)

  1. A temporary loss of consciousness.
  2. A temporary loss of memory.
    Synonym: pass out
  3. An instance of censorship, especially a temporary one.
    media blackout
    the 2012 English Wikipedia blackout
  4. A large-scale power failure, and resulting loss of electricity to consumers.
    Synonyms: power cut, outage
    • 2006 May 13, Weekend Argus, page 5:
      The repairs at the Koeberg Power Station in the Western Cape were on schedule for completion in the third week of May. This follows huge blackouts related to the problems at the power supplier since November.
  5. (historical) The mandatory blocking of all light emanating from buildings, as well as outdoor and street lighting as a measure against aerial bombing or naval attack, as imposed during, e.g., World War II.
    • 1939 November, Charles E. Lee, “Railways and the War — I”, in Railway Magazine, page 317:
      In co-operation with the Government departments, the British railway companies prepared their stations, offices, docks, hotels, trains, and other premises for the necessary blackout of lighting that it was realised would be required in a state of emergency, and in the case of the experimental voluntary blackouts which took place in July and August the railway companies concerned co-operated in every way possible.
  6. (attributive) The blocking out of as much light as possible.
    blackout blinds; blackout curtains

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • → French: blackout
  • → German: Blackout
  • → Portuguese: blecaute, blackout

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

blackout (third-person singular simple present blackouts, present participle blackouting, simple past and past participle blackouted)

  1. (nonstandard) Alternative form of black out
    • 1941, Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America: Letter from the Chief Scout Executive Transmitting the Annual Report of the Boy Scouts of America ... as Required by Federal Charter, Boy Scouts of America, page 37:
      Scouts assisted Mabel Smythe Building officials in blackouting windows.
    • 2013, Dr Pauline Fairclough, Twentieth-Century Music and Politics: Essays in Memory of Neil Edmunds, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., →ISBN:
      As blades in night's chest buried, Voraciously my eyes strike, the silent Warsaw evening, my city blackouted throughout...
    • 2015, Helen Brown, Reflections: Australian Stories from My Father's Past, →ISBN:
      We had some inconvenience, such as food and petrol rationing, blackouting of homes and work places.
    • 2018, Peter Sikora, The Polish 'Few': Polish Airmen in the Battle of Britain, Casemate Publishers, →ISBN:
      'After recovering I 'blackouted' so much that I did not wake up until 10,000 ft below.' Zumbach's account, apart from the detailed description of his dogfight, also highlights the subject of the Polish pilots communicating in the air ...
    • 2021, Jitendra Dixit, Bombay 3, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN:
      Sarla started weeping and rushed to pull Jagan up. Jagan had banged his head into a wall and blackouted for a few moments. As his vision returned, he saw all his writings that he had lovingly been collecting […]

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English blackout.

Noun[edit]

blackout m (plural blackouts)

  1. Alternative form of blecaute

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English blackout.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

blackout m (plural blackouts)

  1. blackout (clarification of this definition is needed)
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