2. In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud. Shak.
3. Fig.: Dismal, gloomy, or forbidding, like darkness; destitute of moral light or goodness; atrociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black day." "Black despair." Shak.
4. Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen; foreboding; as, to regard one with black looks.
Note: Black is often used in self-explaining compound words; as, black-eyed, black-faced, black-haired, black-visaged. Black act, the English statute 9 George I, which makes it a felony to appear armed in any park or warren, etc., or to hunt or steal deer, etc., with the face blackened or disguised. Subsequent acts inflicting heavy penalties for malicious injuries to cattle and machinery have been called black acts. — Black angel (Zoöl.), a fish of the West Indies and Florida (Holacanthus tricolor), with the head and tail yellow, and the middle of the body black. — Black antimony (Chem.), the black sulphide of antimony, Sb2S3, used in pyrotechnics, etc. — Black bear (Zoöl.), the common American bear (Ursus Americanus). — Black beast. See Bête noire. — Black beetle (Zoöl.), the common large cockroach (Blatta orientalis). — Black and blue, the dark color of a bruise in the flesh, which is accompanied with a mixture of blue. "To pinch the slatterns black and blue." Hudibras. — Black bonnet (Zoöl.), the black-headed bunting (Embriza Schoeniclus) of Europe. — Black canker, a disease in turnips and other crops, produced by a species of caterpillar. — Black cat (Zoöl.), the fisher, a quadruped of North America allied to the sable, but larger. See Fisher. — Black cattle, any bovine cattle reared for slaughter, in distinction from dairy cattle. [Eng.] — Black cherry. See under Cherry. — Black cockatoo (Zoöl.), the palm cockatoo. See Cockatoo. — Black copper. Same as Melaconite. — Black currant. (Bot.) See Currant. — Black diamond. (Min.) See Carbonado. — Black draught (Med.), a cathartic medicine, composed of senna and magnesia. — Black drop (Med.), vinegar of opium; a narcotic preparation consisting essentially of a solution of opium in vinegar. — Black earth, mold; earth of a dark color. Woodward. — Black flag, the flag of a pirate, often bearing in white a skull and crossbones; a signal of defiance. — Black flea (Zoöl.), a flea beetle (Haltica nemorum) injurious to turnips. — Black flux, a mixture of carbonate of potash and charcoal, obtained by deflagrating tartar with half its weight of niter. Brande & C. — Black fly. (Zoöl.) (a) In the United States, a small, venomous, two-winged fly of the genus Simulium of several species, exceedingly abundant and troublesome in the northern forests. The larvæ are aquatic. (b) A black plant louse, as the bean aphis (A. fabæ). — Black Forest Etym: Syn. BLACK Defn: Sullenly; threateningly; maliciously; so as to produce blackness. BLACK 1. That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth has a good black. Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night. Shak. 2. A black pigment or dye.
— Dark; murky; pitchy; inky; somber; dusky; gloomy; swart;
Cimmerian; ebon; atrocious.
Black, adv.
Black, n.