Black

English Meaning

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.

1. Being of the color black, producing or reflecting comparatively little light and having no predominant hue.
2. Having little or no light: a black, moonless night.
3. Of or belonging to a racial group having brown to black skin, especially one of African origin: the Black population of South Africa.
4. Of or belonging to an American ethnic group descended from African peoples having dark skin; African-American.
5. Very dark in color: rich black soil; black, wavy hair.
6. Soiled, as from soot; dirty: feet black from playing outdoors.
7. Evil; wicked: the pirates' black deeds.
8. Cheerless and depressing; gloomy: black thoughts.
9. Being or characterized by morbid or grimly satiric humor: a black comedy.
10. Marked by anger or sullenness: gave me a black look.
11. Attended with disaster; calamitous: a black day; the stock market crash on Black Friday.
12. Deserving of, indicating, or incurring censure or dishonor: "Man ... has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands” ( Rachel Carson).
13. Wearing clothing of the darkest visual hue: the black knight.
14. Served without milk or cream: black coffee.
15. Appearing to emanate from a source other than the actual point of origin. Used chiefly of intelligence operations: black propaganda; black radio transmissions.
16. Disclosed, for reasons of security, only to an extremely limited number of authorized persons; very highly classified: black programs in the Defense Department; the Pentagon's black budget.
17. Chiefly British Boycotted as part of a labor union action.
18. The achromatic color value of minimum lightness or maximum darkness; the color of objects that absorb nearly all light of all visible wavelengths; one extreme of the neutral gray series, the opposite being white. Although strictly a response to zero stimulation of the retina, the perception of black appears to depend on contrast with surrounding color stimuli.
19. A pigment or dye having this color value.
20. Complete or almost complete absence of light; darkness.
21. Clothing of the darkest hue, especially such clothing worn for mourning.
22. A member of a racial group having brown to black skin, especially one of African origin.
23. An American descended from peoples of African origin having brown to black skin; an African American.
24. Something that is colored black.
25. Games The black-colored pieces, as in chess or checkers.
26. Games The player using these pieces.
27. To make black: blacked their faces with charcoal.
28. To apply blacking to: blacked the stove.
29. Chiefly British To boycott as part of a labor union action.
30. To become black.
31. black out To lose consciousness or memory temporarily: blacked out at the podium.
32. black out To suppress (a fact or memory, for example) from conscious recognition: blacked out many of my wartime experiences.
33. black out To prohibit the dissemination of, especially by censorship: blacked out the news issuing from the rebel provinces.
34. black out To extinguish or conceal all lights that might help enemy aircraft find a target during an air raid.
35. black out To extinguish all the lights on (a stage).
36. black out To cause a failure of electrical power in: Storm damage blacked out much of the region.
37. black out To withhold (a televised event or program) from a broadcast area: blacked out the football game on local stations.
38. black out To withhold a televised event or program from: blacked out the entire state to increase ticket sales.
39. in the black On the credit side of a ledger; prosperous.