Obs. exc. dial. Also 5 blekkyn, 5–6 blek. Pa. t. 6 Sc. blekkit. [App. f. blek BLECK sb.: but cf. the parallel BLETCH v., of which this may be the northern form, going back to an OE. *blęccan:—OTeut. *blakjan, f. *blako- BLACK.]
1. trans. To make black; esp. to blacken with ink, soot, tar, or the like. Still in north. dial.
1382. Wyclif, Job xxx. 30. My skin is bleckid up on me.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 39. Blekkyn wythe bleke [1499 blackyn with blecke], atramento.
1570. Levins, Manip., 47. To blecke, bletch, nigrare.
1646. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 440. It was his comfort on his death-bed that he never blecked nor disfigured the well-favoured face of the Kirk of Scotland.
Mod. Sc. How hae ye blekkit yeir face?
2. To enter or inscribe with ink; to write.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 311. Thus told I youre tax, thus ar my bokys blekyt.
1570. Leg. Bp. St. Andrews, in Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 340. Not all the paper of this towne, And blek[k]it baith vnder and abone, May had the half that he hes done.
3. fig. To blacken morally, to make or declare guilty; to defile. (Still dial.)
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 211. Boþe partis ben bleckid with þis synne.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 715. Quhither or nocht he wes thairof to blek.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catech. (1884), 139. Syn … that fylis and blekkis our saulis.
¶ 4. Here perhaps representing ON. blekkja ‘to impose upon, deceive,’ = OE. blęncan to BLENCH.
1573. Sege Edinb. Cast., in Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 307. Sen ye are wairned, I wald not ye were blekkit.
