black

1 adjective

1 COLOUR having the colour of night or coal: a black evening dress | The mountains looked black against the moon. | She has short black hair.

2 PEOPLE

a) someone who is black is a member of a dark-skinned race, especially the Negro race: Over half the students here are black.

b) (only before noun) connected with or concerning black people: politics from a black perspective | contemporary black music

-see negro

3 TEA/COFFEE black coffee or tea does not have milk in it: Two black coffees, please.

-opposite white 1 (4)

4 DIRTY very dirty: My hands were black from working on the car.

5 WITHOUT HOPE sad and without much hope for the future; gloomy: Things were beginning to look pretty black for us. | a feeling of black despair | a black day (=when something very sad or upsetting happens): It's been another black day for the motor industry, with announcements of major job losses.

6 ANGRY full of feelings of anger or hate: I knew not to irritate him when he was in such a black mood. | Denise gave me a black look.

7 not be as black as you are painted not to be as bad as people say you are

8 EVIL literary very bad: black deeds | a black-hearted villain

-see also: blackly - blackness noun (C) 2 noun

1 (U) the dark colour of night or coal

2 (U) black clothes: You look good in black.

3 (C) someone who belongs to a dark-skinned race, especially the Negro race: laws that discriminated against blacks

-see negro

4 be in the black to have money in your bank account

-opposite be in the red red 2 (5)

5 (U) black paint, colour etc: Put some more black around your eyes.

3 verb (T)

1 BrE if a trade union blacks goods or blacks a company, it refuses to work with them

2 old-fashioned to make something black