Possessing in the highest degree the property of absorbing light; reflecting and transmitting little or no light; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest possible hue; sable; optically, wholly destitute of color, or absolutely dark, whether from the absence or from the total absorption of light: opposed to white.Hence Characterized by the absence of light; involved or enveloped in darkness.Dismal; gloomy; sullen and forbidding: as, a black prospect.Destitute of moral light or goodness; evil; wicked; atrocious: as, black deeds.Calamitous; disastrous; bringing ruin or desolation: as, black tidings; black Friday.Deadly; malignant; baneful: as, a black augury.Clouded with anger; frowning; threatening; boding ill: as, black looks.Wearing black or dark clothing, armor, etc.: as, Edward the Black Prince; black friars.Stained with dirt; soiled; dirty: as, black hands.n. Black color; the darkest color, properly the negation of all color: the opposite of white.n. A black dye or pigment: as, blacks and grays.n. A black part of something, as that of the eye; specifically, the opening in the iris; the pupil: in opposition to the white.n. Black clothing, especially when worn as a sign of mourning: as, to be in black: sometimes used in the plural.n. plural Funeral drapery, consisting of hangings of black cloth.n. A mute; one of the hired mourners at a funeral.n. A member of one of the dark-colored races; a negro or other dark-skinned person.n. One with the face blacked or disguised; specifically, a deer-stealer; a poacher.n. A small flake of soot; smut: usually plural.n. A dark stain or smear.n. plural Ink used in copperplate printing, prepared from the charred husks of the grape and the residue of the wine-press.n. In printing, any mark on the paper between the lines or letters caused by the rising of the leads, etc., to the level of the type: commonly in the plural.n. In the fine arts, with no colors but black and white. The term is often extended to include (as in exhibitions of “works in black and white”) monochromes of any sort, as sepia drawings.To make black; blacken or put a black color on; soil; stain: as, to black one's hands.To clean and polish (shoes, etc.) by blacking and brushing them.To blacken; stain; sully; defame.To become black; take on a black color.To poach. See black, n., 8.Dark-complexioned.n. In archery: The fourth and next to the outermost circle of the target, which is colored black. See target.n. An arrow which hits this circle; a hit in the black. According to t he present method of scoring such a hit counts 3.n. plural Black or coaly shale.n. plural The larvæ of the black caterpillar (which see).n. the oxidation of emeraldine to nigranilinen. and the oxidation of the nigraniline to the so-called ‘un-greenable black’ which is the color desired. The color is always made as used, the formation of the black taking place within and upon the liber during the dyeing process. It is largely used in calico-printing and in hosiery-dyeing, and whenever an extra-fast black is desired. It is commonly applied to cotton, but processes have been devised by which it may be applied to cotton-and-wool union goods.n. Any direct cotton black.
