From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
black
adj 1: being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness; having
little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all
incident light; "black leather jackets"; "as black as
coal"; "rich black soil" [syn: achromatic] [ant:
white]
2: of or belonging to a racial group having dark skin
especially of sub-Saharan African origin; "a great
people--a black people--...injected new meaning and
dignity into the veins of civilization"- Martin Luther
King Jr. [ant: white]
3: marked by anger or resentment or hostility; "black looks";
"black words"
4: stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or
dishonorable; "black deeds"; "a black lie"; "his black
heart has concocted yet another black deed"; "Darth Vader
of the dark side"; "a dark purpose"; "dark undercurrents
of ethnic hostility"; "the scheme of some sinister
intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy [syn:
dark, sinister]
5: offering little or no hope; "the future looked black";
"prospects were bleak"; "Life in the Aran Islands has
always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; "took a dim
view of things" [syn: bleak, dim]
6: (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire
consequences; bringing ruin; "the stock market crashed on
Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a
disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines,
if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles
Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to
win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error" [syn:
calamitous, disastrous, fatal, fateful]
7: (of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood;
"a face black with fury" [syn: blackened]
8: extremely dark; "a black moonless night"; "through the
pitch-black woods"; "it was pitch-dark in the celler"
[syn: pitch-black, pitch-dark]
9: harshly ironic or sinister; "black humor"; "a grim joke";
"grim laughter"; "fun ranging from slapstick clowning ...
to savage mordant wit" [syn: grim, mordant]
10: (of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading; "black
propaganda"
11: distributed or sold illicitly; "the black economy pays no
taxes" [syn: bootleg, black-market, contraband,
smuggled]
12: (used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing
disgrace or shame; "Man...has written one of his blackest
records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands"- Rachel
Carson; "an ignominious retreat"; "inglorious defeat";
"an opprobrious monument to human greed"; "a shameful
display of cowardice" [syn: disgraceful, ignominious,
inglorious, opprobrious, shameful]
13: (of coffee) without cream or sugar
14: dressed in black; "a black knight"; "black friars"
15: soiled with dirt or soot; "with feet black from playing
outdoors"; "his shirt was black within an hour"
n 1: the quality or state of the achromatic color of least
lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) [syn:
blackness] [ant: white]
2: total absence of light; "they fumbled around in total
darkness"; "in the black of night" [syn: total darkness,
lightlessness, blackness, pitch blackness]
3: British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who
formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat
(1728-1799) [syn: Black, Joseph Black]
4: popular child actress of the 1930's (born 1927) [syn:
Black, Shirley Temple Black, Shirley Temple]
5: a person with dark skin who comes from Africa (or whose
ancestors came from Africa) [syn: Black, Black person,
blackamoor, Negro, Negroid]
6: (board games) the darker pieces [ant: white]
7: black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning); "the widow wore
black"
v : make or become black; "The smoke blackened the ceiling";
"The ceiling blackened" [syn: blacken, melanize,
melanise, nigrify] [ant: whiten]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Black \Black\, adv.
Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously; so as to produce
blackness.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Black \Black\, n.
1. That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest
color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth
has a good black.
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Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night. --Shak.
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2. A black pigment or dye.
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3. A negro; a person whose skin is of a black color, or
shaded with black; esp. a member or descendant of certain
African races.
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4. A black garment or dress; as, she wears black; pl. (Obs.)
Mourning garments of a black color; funereal drapery.
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Friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the
like show death terrible. --Bacon.
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That was the full time they used to wear blacks for
the death of their fathers. --Sir T.
North.
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5. The part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest
by being black.
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The black or sight of the eye. --Sir K.
Digby.
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6. A stain; a spot; a smooch.
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Defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks
of lust. --Rowley.
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Black and white, writing or print; as, I must have that
statement in black and white.
Blue black, a pigment of a blue black color.
Ivory black, a fine kind of animal charcoal prepared by
calcining ivory or bones. When ground it is the chief
ingredient of the ink used in copperplate printing.
Berlin black. See under Berlin.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Black \Black\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blacked; p. pr. & vb. n.
Blacking.] [See Black, a., and cf. Blacken.]
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1. To make black; to blacken; to soil; to sully.
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They have their teeth blacked, both men and women,
for they say a dog hath his teeth white, therefore
they will black theirs. --Hakluyt.
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Sins which black thy soul. --J. Fletcher.
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2. To make black and shining, as boots or a stove, by
applying blacking and then polishing with a brush.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Black \Black\ (bl[a^]k), a. [OE. blak, AS. bl[ae]c; akin to
Icel. blakkr dark, swarthy, Sw. bl[aum]ck ink, Dan. bl[ae]k,
OHG. blach, LG. & D. blaken to burn with a black smoke. Not
akin to AS. bl[=a]c, E. bleak pallid. [root]98.]
1. 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.
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O night, with hue so black! --Shak.
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2. In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in
darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the
heavens black with clouds.
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I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud.
--Shak.
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3. Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness;
destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked;
cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black
fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black
day." "Black despair." --Shak.
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4. Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen;
foreboding; as, to regard one with black looks.
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Note: Black is often used in self-explaining compound words;
as, black-eyed, black-faced, black-haired,
black-visaged.
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Black act, the English statute 9 George I, which makes it a
felony to appear armed in any park or warren, etc., or to
hunt or steal deer, etc., with the face blackened or
disguised. Subsequent acts inflicting heavy penalties for
malicious injuries to cattle and machinery have been
called black acts.
Black angel (Zool.), a fish of the West Indies and Florida
(Holacanthus tricolor), with the head and tail yellow,
and the middle of the body black.
Black antimony (Chem.), the black sulphide of antimony,
Sb2S3, used in pyrotechnics, etc.
Black bear (Zool.), the common American bear ({Ursus
Americanus}).
Black beast. See {B[^e]te noire}.
Black beetle (Zool.), the common large cockroach ({Blatta
orientalis}).
Black bonnet (Zool.), the black-headed bunting ({Embriza
Sch[oe]niclus}) of Europe.
Black canker, a disease in turnips and other crops,
produced by a species of caterpillar.
Black cat (Zool.), the fisher, a quadruped of North America
allied to the sable, but larger. See Fisher.
Black cattle, any bovine cattle reared for slaughter, in
distinction from dairy cattle. [Eng.]
Black cherry. See under Cherry.
Black cockatoo (Zool.), the palm cockatoo. See Cockatoo.
Black copper. Same as Melaconite.
Black currant. (Bot.) See Currant.
Black diamond. (Min.) See Carbonado.
Black draught (Med.), a cathartic medicine, composed of
senna and magnesia.
Black drop (Med.), vinegar of opium; a narcotic preparation
consisting essentially of a solution of opium in vinegar.
Black earth, mold; earth of a dark color. --Woodward.
Black flag, the flag of a pirate, often bearing in white a
skull and crossbones; a signal of defiance.
Black flea (Zool.), a flea beetle (Haltica nemorum)
injurious to turnips.
Black flux, a mixture of carbonate of potash and charcoal,
obtained by deflagrating tartar with half its weight of
niter. --Brande & C.
Black Forest [a translation of G. Schwarzwald], a forest in
Baden and W["u]rtemburg, in Germany; a part of the ancient
Hercynian forest.
Black game, or Black grouse. (Zool.) See Blackcock,
Grouse, and Heath grouse.
Black grass (Bot.), a grasslike rush of the species {Juncus
Gerardi}, growing on salt marshes, and making good hay.
Black gum (Bot.), an American tree, the tupelo or
pepperidge. See Tupelo.
{Black Hamburg (grape)} (Bot.), a sweet and juicy variety of
dark purple or "black" grape.
Black horse (Zool.), a fish of the Mississippi valley
(Cycleptus elongatus), of the sucker family; the
Missouri sucker.
Black lemur (Zool.), the Lemurniger of Madagascar; the
acoumbo of the natives.
Black list, a list of persons who are for some reason
thought deserving of censure or punishment; -- esp. a list
of persons stigmatized as insolvent or untrustworthy, made
for the protection of tradesmen or employers. See
Blacklist, v. t.
Black manganese (Chem.), the black oxide of manganese,
MnO2.
Black Maria, the close wagon in which prisoners are carried
to or from jail.
Black martin (Zool.), the chimney swift. See Swift.
Black moss (Bot.), the common so-called long moss of the
southern United States. See Tillandsia.
Black oak. See under Oak.
Black ocher. See Wad.
Black pigment, a very fine, light carbonaceous substance,
or lampblack, prepared chiefly for the manufacture of
printers' ink. It is obtained by burning common coal tar.
Black plate, sheet iron before it is tinned. --Knight.
Black quarter, malignant anthrax with engorgement of a
shoulder or quarter, etc., as of an ox.
Black rat (Zool.), one of the species of rats ({Mus
rattus}), commonly infesting houses.
Black rent. See Blackmail, n., 3.
Black rust, a disease of wheat, in which a black, moist
matter is deposited in the fissures of the grain.
Black sheep, one in a family or company who is unlike the
rest, and makes trouble.
Black silver. (Min.) See under Silver.
Black and tan, black mixed or spotted with tan color or
reddish brown; -- used in describing certain breeds of
dogs.
Black tea. See under Tea.
Black tin (Mining), tin ore (cassiterite), when dressed,
stamped and washed, ready for smelting. It is in the form
of a black powder, like fine sand. --Knight.
Black walnut. See under Walnut.
Black warrior (Zool.), an American hawk (Buteo Harlani).
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Syn: Dark; murky; pitchy; inky; somber; dusky; gloomy; swart;
Cimmerian; ebon; atrocious.
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