[The adj. used absol. or elliptically.]
1. Black color or hue. It may have a plural, as in ‘different blacks,’ i.e., kinds or shades of black.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 282. Biholden euer his blake & nout his hwite.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 229 b. Knowe what whyte is, and it is soone perceyued what blacke is.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 56. All his blacks are white.
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, iii. 175. We must take black and white into our list, as colours with the painter though not with the optician.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., IV. V. iii. § 14. 45.
2. A black paint, dye or pigment. In senses a, b, see also BLECK, BLATCH, BLETCH.
† a. Black writing fluid, ink. Obs. Black and White: see BLACK a. 15, b, c.
a. 1000. Canons K. Edgar, in Anc. Laws, II. 244. And we lærað þæt hi … habban blǽc & bóc-fel to heóra gerædnessum.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 164. Incaustum vel atramentum, blæc.
b. A preparation used by shoemakers, curriers, etc., for staining leather black.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 277. Shoomakers black with vineger.
c. A black pigment, dye or varnish; many different preparations are used by artists, as ivory black, lamp black, Spanish black, etc.; in the industrial arts several black varnishes and pigments are similarly distinguished, as Berlin black, Brunswick black.
1573. Huloet, Blacke, called paynters blacke, atramentum tectorium.
1581. Act 23 Eliz., ix. § 3. Clothes … dyed with a galled and mathered Black.
1670. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Ess., 75. Dyers in the making of their Blacks, use not Alom but Vitriol.
1815. Specif. J. Taylor’s Patent, No. 3929. 2. Bones converted either into ivory or bone black.
1846. G. Wright, Scientif. Knowl., 46. Ivory black is … ivory or bones thoroughly burnt, and afterwards ground.
c. 1860. Winsor & Newton, Handbk. Water-Col., 31. Lamp Black is not quite so intense, nor so transparent, as that made from ivory.
3. A particle of some black substance, a black speck; a. spec. the dark-colored fungus which attacks wheat, smut.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 11869. Yche blak, y dar wel telle Þat hyt was a fende of helle.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 259. They have also little blacks in the middle of their teeth.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew. (1660), 110. You shall take the blacks of green Corn either Wheat or Rye.
1783. Ainsworth, Lat. Dict., I. s.v. bean, The black of a bean, Hilum.
1883. Gd. Words, 735/2. Who has not observed the smut—or ‘blacks’—among corn?
b. A small particle or flake of soot, a smut. Usually in plural.
c. 1816. Yng. Woman’s Comp., 196. Let the blamange settle before you turn it into the forms, or the blacks will remain at the bottom.
1843. F. Paget, Pageant, 84. She carefully covered over … any articles that were likely to be damaged by blacks.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., III. viii. (1873), 223. The blacks of the world have settled down upon it.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. 149. If you see a black on my nose, tell me so.
† 4. The dark spot in the center of the eye, the pupil. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. II. 189. Þese hauen in eueriche yȝe tweie blakkes. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., V. vii. (1495), 113. The blacke of the eye syttyth in the mydle as a quene.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. In the region of the blacke of the eye.
1644. Digby, Nat. Bodies, viii. 53 (J.). As bigge as the blacke or sight of our eye.
5. Black fabric or material.
a. Black clothing, especially that worn as a sign of mourning, in which sense the plural was formerly used, as still in Lowland Sc. (Blacks, in modern use, sometimes = black or dress trousers.)
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4759. And eke as wel be amorettes In mourning blacke, as bright burnettes.
c. 1500. Merch. & Son, in Halliwell, Nugæ Poeticæ, 28. Fadur, why appere ye thus in black, ar not yowre synnys foryevyn?
1580. North, Plutarch (1656), 20. Ten moneths … was the full time they used to wear blacks for the death of their fathers.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., xix. 247. Neither are all that weare blackes his mourners.
1641. R. Brooke, Eng. Episc., I. iv. 17. Some to Ministers, as Cassockes, Gownes … Canonicall Coats, Blackes.
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 557. The King … has ordered all his subjects to goe into black.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VI. 52. Whom dealest thou with for thy blacks?
1862. Thackeray, Philip, I. 174. My old blacks show the white seams so, that you must … rig me out with a new pair.
b. pl. Hangings of black cloth used in churches, etc., at funerals; funereal drapery.
1608. Middleton, Mad World, II. ii. I’ll pay him again when he dies in so many blacks; I’ll have the church hung round with a noble a yard.
1611. Cotgr., Littre … the blacke wherewith the vpper part of a Church is compassed, at the funerall of a great person.
1711. J. Distaff, Char. Sacheverellio, 16. The Company of Upholders are not able to furnish Blacks enough for the Deceased.
c. Often in comb., as black-robed.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., X. lvi. 250. The black-clad Scaffold.
1863. Miss Whately, Ragged Life Egypt, iv. 23. Her black-robed female relatives support her on each side.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 375. Her friends black-clad and moving mournfully.
6. = Black man or woman.
a. A man of ‘black’ skin; an African negro, or Australasian negrito, or other member of a dark-skinned race. In this sense it appears to be a translation of Negro, which was in earlier use.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, IX. xiii. § 1. 1570. The mouth of the Riuer [Gambra], where dwell the Blackes, called Mandingos.
1679–88. Secr. Serv. Moneys Chas. & Jas. (1851), 58. To Randall McDonnell, for a black his sd Matie bought of him, 50l.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 20. This giant was one of the Blacks or Negroes.
1789. George Pr. Wales, in Cornwallis’ Corr., II. 29 (Y.). The Adaulet of Benares … now held by a Black named Alii Caun.
1805. Ann. Rev., III. 289. They exclude from suffrage the blacks and the paupers.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 129. The free black does not, in general, feel himself superior to the slave.
† b. One of a band of poachers who went about their work with blackened faces. Obs. attrib. in black-act, a severe law (9 Geo. I. xxii.) against poaching, trespassing, etc.
1722. Act 9 Geo. I., xxii. Whereas several ill-designing and disorderly Persons have of late associated themselves under the name of Blacks.
1785. G. White, Selborne, vii. The Waltham blacks … committed such enormities, that Government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary Act called the Black Act.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., s.v., A virtual repeal of the punishment inflicted by the Black Act.
† c. A black-haired person. Obs.
c. 1686. Yng. Mans C., in Roxb. Ball., II. 558. The pleasant Blacks and modest Browns, their loving Husbands please.
† d. A mute or hired mourner at a funeral. Obs.
1619. Fletcher, M. Thomas, III. i. I do pray ye To give me leave to live a little longer: Ye stand before me like my Blacks.
7. In various elliptical applications: a. Typogr. (see quot.) b. Chess & Draughts. The player using the black or colored pieces. c. Archery. A shot that hits the target in the black ring surrounding the inner white circle.
1882. Print. Times, 15 Feb., 36/1. Blacks is a term applied to any mark on a sheet made by pieces of furniture, catches, etc. rising to the level of the form.
1837. Penny Cycl., VII. 52/1. Black’s fourth move was a very bad one.
1882. Standard, 31 Aug., 6/4. The Vice-President’s Prize to ladies for most blacks.
