to black
- verb
- /blæk/
- If you apply the solution and it turns black in a second, it looks so, so cool.
- blacked-out windows
OK, now if we just black and white it, you are the star.
- OK, now if we just black and white it, you are the star.
Examples
-
So I will now stain it all black and give it a black cushion.
-
- We should black out the windows.
-
The windows are blacked out.
-
The air seemed to thunder and blacken with the number of birds within the branches.
Fiction book (1992) -
I am not going to blacken anyone's name because I don't know all the facts.
Fiction book (2000) -
Nansa Doumbia sprinkles millet chaff and sawdust on a pot to blacken the surface.
Academic text (1994) -
If you want to black your hair, you should use a strong dye.
-
To give the furniture a modern look, we decided to black the wooden legs.
-
You can black the canvas with paint to create a dark background.
Synonyms
To make something dark or to become dark, for example walls after a fire
To become dark when a living thing makes melanin
Antonyms
Idioms
A sign that dark clouds are coming and rain may fall, or a joke that things only seem bad
Phrasal Verbs
Compounds
- Specialized
An area of space with gravity so strong that not even light can escape it
A group of Black American activists in the 1960s who fought police abuse and fought for equal rights
- Specialized
A device on an airplane that records flight information and pilot voices
A very skilled person in martial arts like karate or judo who wears a dark band at the waist
A thing, like a failing project, that uses a lot of time or money and gives nothing back
A member of the Black Panther Party who fought for equal rights for African Americans in the 1960s
- Formal
A formal evening dress code for men that requires a black jacket and bow tie
- US
A venomous spider from the Americas whose female is black with a red hourglass on the underside of its body
A sea between southeastern Europe and western Asia that borders countries like Turkey and Ukraine
- Specialized
A system whose inner parts are hidden so you only see what goes in and what comes out
A fictional king and superhero from Marvel who uses advanced technology to protect his people
- Specialized
A lung disease from breathing coal dust for a long time that often affects miners
- US
A person who follows the Nation of Islam, a religious group among African Americans in the United States
A severe disease in the Middle Ages that spread across Europe and killed millions
- Literature
A play or film that makes serious subjects, especially taboo ones, seem funny
A range of mountains in South Dakota and Wyoming, home to Mount Rushmore and sacred to the Sioux
- NSFW
A Palestinian armed group that carried out attacks in other countries in the early 1970s
- Specialized
An object that absorbs all light and other kinds of radiation that hit it
- Specialized
A person with advanced Six Sigma training who leads projects to improve how a company works
- Specialized
A serious lung illness caused by breathing coal dust over many years, often in miners
- Jargon
A secret action that hides who did it, often for political or military reasons
How Dark
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word black can be a verb for the same old idea of 'making dark' or 'charing', so to black something is to make it dark or dirty.