BLACKS - Definition & Meaning for Kids

Meaning 1

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

(of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences

Example: bringing ruin; the stock market crashed on Black Friday; a calamitous defeat; the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign; such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; a fateful error

Meaning 2

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

stemming from evil characteristics or forces

Example: wicked or dishonorable; black deeds; a black lie; his black heart has concocted yet another black deed; Darth Vader of the dark side; a dark purpose; dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility; the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy

Meaning 3

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

marked by anger or resentment or hostility

Example: black looks; black words

Meaning 4

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

(used of conduct or character) deserving or bringing disgrace or shame

Example: Man...has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands"- Rachel Carson; an ignominious retreat; inglorious defeat; an opprobrious monument to human greed; a shameful display of cowardice

Meaning 5

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

offering little or no hope

Example: the future looked black; prospects were bleak; Life in the Aran Islands has always been bleak and difficult"- J.M.Synge; took a dim view of things

Meaning 6

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

distributed or sold illicitly

Example: the black economy pays no taxes

Meaning 7

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

(of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading

Example: black propaganda

Meaning 8

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

harshly ironic or sinister

Example: black humor; a grim joke; grim laughter; fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit

Meaning 9

Part of speech: Adjective

of or belonging to a racial group especially of sub-Saharan African origin

Example: a great people--a black people--...injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization"- Martin Luther King Jr.

Meaning 10

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

extremely dark

Example: a black moonless night; through the pitch-black woods; it was pitch-dark in the cellar

Meaning 11

Part of speech: Adjective

being of the achromatic color of maximum darkness

Example: having little or no hue owing to absorption of almost all incident light; black leather jackets; as black as coal; rich black soil

Meaning 12

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

(of the face) made black especially as with suffused blood

Example: a face black with fury

Meaning 13

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

soiled with dirt or soot

Example: with feet black from playing outdoors; his shirt was black within an hour

Meaning 14

Part of speech: Adjective (satellite)

(of coffee) without cream or sugar

Meaning 15

Part of speech: Noun

popular child actress of the 1930's (born in 1928)

Meaning 16

Part of speech: Noun

British chemist who identified carbon dioxide and who formulated the concepts of specific heat and latent heat (1728-1799)

Meaning 17

Part of speech: Noun

total absence of light

Example: they fumbled around in total darkness; in the black of night

Meaning 18

Part of speech: Noun

black clothing (worn as a sign of mourning)

Example: the widow wore black

Meaning 19

Part of speech: Noun

(board games) the darker pieces

Meaning 20

Part of speech: Noun

the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white)

Meaning 21

Part of speech: Noun

a person with African ancestry, "Negro" and "Negroid" are archaic and pejorative today

Meaning 22

Part of speech: Verb

make or become black

Example: The smoke blackened the ceiling; The ceiling blackened