† 1. A black ore of LEAD. Obs.
2. The ordinary name of the mineral called also plumbago or graphite; a substance of greyish-black color and metallic luster, consisting of almost pure carbon with a slight admixture of iron; it is chiefly used (made into pencils) for drawing and writing, and for giving a black metallic polish to iron-work. (The name dates back to days before the real composition of the substance was known.)
1583. Plat, Divers New Exp. (1594), 39. Some … draw thereon with blacke lead.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 767. That minerall kind of earth or hardned glittering stone (we cal it Black-lead).
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 47. Note them with a pensil of black lead.
1683. Pettus, Fleta Min., II. Lead, Of late it [black lead] is curiously formed into cases of deal or cedar, and so sold as dry pencils.
1732. De Foe, etc., Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), III. 320. The Black-lead is found in heavy Lumps, some of which are hard, gritty, and of small Value, others soft and of a fine Texture.
1866. Ruskin, Eth. Dust., 18. There is a little iron mixed with our black lead.
b. This substance in the form of a pencil.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 725. 225. Have with you alwayes a table-book (or black-lead and paper).
1832. Carlyle, in Fraser’s Mag., V. 390. Boswell is there with ass-skin and black-lead to note thy jargon.
c. Writing done with a black-lead pencil.
1667. Pepys, (1877), V. 276. Having done it without looking on my paper, I find I could not read the black-lead.
d. A preparation of inferior quality for domestic use in polishing grates and other cast-iron utensils.
a. 1849. Chambers, Inform. People, II. 788/2. Stove-grates are cleaned with black-lead mixed with turpentine.
3. Attrib. and Comb. (bla·ck-lead), as black-lead pen, pencil, study, etc.; † black-lead comb, a comb used to darken the hair.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., ix. § 3 (1669), 145. He could not bear the sight of his own grey hairs, and therefore used a *black-lead-comb to discolour them.
1716. Swift, Progr. Beauty, Wks. 1755, III. II. 166. To think of black-lead combs is vain.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 247. Being noted with a line with a *blacklead pen.
1687. M. Clifford, Notes Dryden, ii. 5. I … put up my Black Lead Pen.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 36. With a *Black-lead Pencil, draw a line from that Mark to the second Mark.
1790. Boswell, Johnson (1831), I. 162. He had marked the passages with a black-lead pencil.
1813. Examiner, 17 May, 311/2. S. Terry *black-lead-maker.
1862. Thornbury, Turner, I. 87. His … *blacklead studies of trees.
