From Middle English blak, black, blake, from Old English blæc, from Proto-West Germanic *blak, from Proto-Germanic *blakaz (compare Dutch blaken, Low German blak, black, Old High German blah), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleg- (compare Latin flagro, Ancient Greek φλόξ, Sanskrit भर्ग).

• enPR: blăk, IPA: /blæk/
• (British) IPA: /blak/
• (America) IPA: /blæk/

black (comparative blacker, superlative blackest)

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.)
   1. (US, UK, South Africa) 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.

   black magic

   • 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:

     She had seen so much of the blacker side of human nature that blackness no longer startled her as it should do.

7. Expressing menace or discontent; threatening; sullen.

   He shot her a black look.

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     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.

8. (of objects, markets, etc) Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
   • 1952, The Contemporary Review, volume 182, page 338:

     Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.

9. Foul; dirty, soiled.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii], page 270 ↗, column 2:

     Then trip him, that his heeles may kicke at Heauen,
     And that his Soule may be as damn'd aud blacke
     As Hell, whereto it goes.

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 (Germany) 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.
18. (Ireland, now, pejorative) Protestant, often with the implication of being militantly pro-British or anti-Catholic. (Compare blackmouth ("Presbyterian").)

    the Black North ― Ulster

    the Royal Black Institution

    • 1841 March 20, "Intelligence; Catholicity in Ulster" ↗ Catholic Herald (Bengal), Vol. 2 No. 1, p. 27:

      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.

    • 1886, Thomas Power O'Connor, The Parnell Movement: With a Sketch of Irish Parties from 1843, page 520:

      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.'

    • 1914 May 27, [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015084608945;view=1up;seq=584 "Review of The North Afire by W. Douglas Newton"], The Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality, volume 86, page t:

      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.

19. Having one or more features (hair, fur, armour, clothes, bark, etc.) that is dark (or black).

    the black knight; black bile

    1. (taxonomy, especially) Dark in comparison to another species with the same base name.

       black birch; black locust; black rhino

• (dark and colourless) dark; swart; see also Thesaurus:black
• (without light) dark, gloomy, pitch-black

• (antonym(s) of “dark and colourless”): white, nonblack, unblack
• (antonym(s) of “without light”): bright, illuminated, lit

see black/translations

black

1. (countable and uncountable) The colour/color perceived in the absence of light, but also when no light is reflected, but rather absorbed.

    

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour's Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.

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.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Death”, in Essays:

     Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.

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.)
   • 1863, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter XXIV, in Miles Wallingford‎:

     "How! They surely cannot pretend that the black is an Englishman?" "There are all kinds of Englishmen, black and white, when seamen grow scarce. […] "

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. (British, 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.
    • 1644, Kenelm Digby, Two Treatises:

      the black or sight of the eye

13. (obsolete, countable) A stain; a spot.
    • 1619, William Rowley, All's Lost by Lust:

      defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust

14. A dark smut fungus, harmful to wheat.
15. (US, slang) Marijuana.

• (colour or absence of light) blackness
• (person) See Thesaurus:person of color

• (antonym(s) of “colour, dye, pen”): white

see black/translations

black (blacks, present participle blacking; simple past and past participle blacked)

1. (transitive) To make black; to blacken.
   • 1859, Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks‎^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20140324200615/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=506735625&tag=Optic%2C+Oliver%3A+Poor+and+proud%3B+or%2C+The+fortunes+of+Katy+Redburn%2C+a+story+for+young+folks%2C+1859&query=+black+your&id=OptPoor]}:

     "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^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20140324200610/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=302756157&tag=Ferber%2C+Edna%3A+Buttered+Side+Down%2C+1911&query=+black+your&id=FerButt]}:

     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.

2. (transitive) To apply blacking to (something).
   • 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin‎^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20141009081751/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w]}:

     […] 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^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20140324200605/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=160888866&tag=EAF538&query=+black+your&id=eaf538]}:

     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^{[https://web.archive.org/web/20140324195439/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=91865750&tag=Beerbohm%2C+Max%2C+Sir%2C+1872-1956%3A+Zuleika+Dobson%2C+1911&query=+black+your&id=BeeZule]}:

     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. (British, transitive) To boycott, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
   • 2003, Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England, page 175:

     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.

• (make black) blacken, darken, swarten
• (boycott) blackball, blacklist; see also Thesaurus:boycott

From Middle English blak.

1. Surname.
2. A number of places in USA:
   1. A town in Geneva County, Alabama.
   2. An unincorporated community in Edwards County, Illinois.
   3. A twp in Posey County, Indiana; from the surname.
   4. An unincorporated community in Reynolds County, Missouri.
   5. A twp in Somerset County, Pennsylvania; from the surname.
   6. An unincorporated community in Mercer County, and.

black (not comparable)

1. (chiefly, North America, often, UK) Alternative case form of black.

black (plural blacks)

1. Alternative case form of black.