black

Etymology

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.

adj

1. (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
2. (of a place, etc) Without light.
3. (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.)
   Somebody tell me, what can I do / Something is holding me back / Is it because I'm black? 1969, “Is It Because I'm Black”, performed by Syl Johnson
   I was not just the President of Southern Americans or white Americans. I was the President of all Americans. 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 did not think that our nation could endure much longer as a viable democracy if that injustice were allowed to continue. 1971, Lyndon Johnson, The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39
   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. 1975 May, Terry Hodges, Ebony, page 10
   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. November 7, 2012, Matt Bai, “Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds”, in New York Times
   1. (US) Belonging to or descended from any of various sub-Saharan African ethnic groups which typically have dark pigmentation of the skin.
4. (chiefly historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups (as described above).
   black drinking fountain; black hospital
5. (card games, of a card) Of the spades or clubs suits. Compare red (“of the hearts or diamonds suit”)
   I was dealt two red queens, and he got one of the black queens.
6. Bad; evil; ill-omened.
   […] 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. 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
   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. 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
   She had seen so much of the blacker side of human nature that blackness no longer startled her as it should do. 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage
7. Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
   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. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
8. (of objects, markets, etc) Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
   Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing. 1952, The Contemporary Review, volume 182, page 338
9. Foul; dirty, soiled.
10. (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
11. (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk, or creamer.
    Jim drinks his coffee black, but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
12. (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 made of dark blue glass.
13. (politics) Anarchist; of or pertaining to anarchism.
14. (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”).
    Compare two Unicode symbols: ☞ = "WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX"; ☛ = BLACK RIGHT POINTING INDEX
15. (politics) Related to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany.
    After the election, the parties united in a black-yellow alliance.
16. Clandestine; relating to a political, military, or espionage operation or site, the existence or details of which is withheld from the general public.
    5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.
    black operations/black ops, black room, black site
17. Occult; relating to something (such as mystical or magical knowledge) which is unknown to or kept secret from the general public.
    Pope Joan, who once occupied the throne of the Vatican, was reputed to be the blackest sorcerer of them all. 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 105
    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. 2014, J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, page 168
18. (Ireland, now derogatory) Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic. (Compare blackmouth ("Presbyterian").)
    the Black North (Ulster)
    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. 1812, Edward Wakefield, An Account of Ireland, Statistical and Political, volume 2, page 737
    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. 1841 March 20, "Intelligence; Catholicity in Ulster" Catholic Herald (Bengal), Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 27
    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.' 1886, Thomas Power O'Connor, The Parnell Movement: With a Sketch of Irish Parties from 1843, page 520
    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. 1914 May 27, "Review of The North Afire by W. Douglas Newton", The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume 86, page t
    He [Sir John Henry Biggart] was personally amused at having once been called "a black bastard". 1985 April, J. A. Weaver, “John Henry Biggart 1905-1979 - A portrait in respect and affection”, in Ulster Medical Journal, volume 54, number 1, page 1
    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. September 6 2007, Fintan O'Toole, “Diary”, in London Review of Books, volume 29, number 17, page 35
19. Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc) that is dark (or black); in taxonomy, especially: dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.
    black birch, black locust, black rhino
    the black knight, black bile

noun

1. (countable and uncountable) The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.
   black:
2. (countable and uncountable) A black dye or pigment.
3. (countable) A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
4. (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
   Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible. 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Death”, in Essays
5. (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.)
   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. 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash
   Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks, accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters. 2004, Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising, page 108
6. (informal) Blackness, the condition of belonging to or being descended from one of these ethnic groups.
   black don't crack
7. (billiards, snooker, pool, countable) The black ball.
8. (baseball, countable) The edge of home plate.
9. (Britain, countable) A type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
10. (informal, countable) Short for blackcurrant, especially (chiefly UK) as syrup or crème de cassis used for cocktails.
    Pernod and black... snakebite and black... cider and black...
11. (in chess and similar games, countable) The person playing with the black set of pieces.
    At this point black makes a disastrous move.
12. (countable) Something, or a part of a thing, which is black.
    the black or sight of the eye
13. (obsolete, countable) A stain; a spot.
    defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust 1619, William Rowley, All's Lost by Lust
14. A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
15. (US, slang) Marijuana.

verb

1. (transitive) To make black; to blacken.
   "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." 1859, Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks
   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. 1911, Edna Ferber, Buttered Side Down
   I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye. 1922, John Galsworthy, A Family Man: In Three Acts
2. (transitive) To apply blacking to (something).
   […] he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy boots). 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
   But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?" 1861, George William Curtis, Trumps: A Novel
   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. 1911, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson
3. (Britain, transitive) To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
   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. 2003, Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England, page 175