in the black
9
5.5
- idiom
:
en números negros
- The fact that we have remained "in the black" for five years is an accomplishment that shouldn't go unnoticed.
- operating in the black
- stay in the black
- finish in the black
Well, the next unit, OK, I'm still in the black.
- Well, the next unit, OK, I'm still in the black.
- Feldhaus is in the black and one of his enemies, Conrad Matros, for example, is always in the red.
- So you do, you string a number of those together, you're in the black and you know, so it's like just a model that I've created for myself.
- And for us, we stayed in the black and did really well up until probably about June of this year and in June of this year.
- The only one that's actually in the black, or as we'd like to say now in the green is the Autonomous and Robotics ETF that's Arc Q.
Examples
-
With this, I am guaranteed in the black.
-
By Tuesday, my friend, you are back in the black.
-
I am in the black for the first time in four years.
-
Name another city program that comes out $9 million in the black each year.
Blog text (2) -
It's operating in the black.
Fiction book (1991) -
Many major businesses and financial institutions are in the black.
Blog text (31) -
To stay in the black, companies have to keep their trucks running round the clock.
Blog text (22) -
But lately I have had some good fortune and I'm back in the black.
-
Feldhaus is in the black and one of his enemies, Conrad Matros, for example, is always in the red.
-
Her campaign is finally in the black after five years of paying off debts.
Synonyms
15
5.5
Having enough money to pay debts and bills
14
3.5
Having enough money to pay your bills and avoid debt
1
6.0
An investment or account that shows a profit
Antonyms
How Profitable
105
5.6
191
3.8
9
5.5
27
3.3
7
4.9
151
4.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
in + the + black
The sense 'making a profit' is an accounting idiom (contrast with 'in the red') and cannot be deduced just from 'in' + 'the' + 'black'—the color 'black' does not transparently convey financial solvency to a B1 learner. This meaning depends on cultural/bookkeeping knowledge rather than ordinary compositional semantics, so learners who only know the constituent words will likely not infer it.
Etymology
The phrase in the black comes from old account books where numbers written in black ink showed a gain and numbers in red ink showed a loss. So being in the black today means 'making a profit' or not 'in debt'.