Forms: 3–4 blak-en, blakk-in, black-en, 3–6 blake, 5 blak-, black-yn, 5–7 blacke, 7– black. [f. BLACK a.]
† 1. intr. To be or become black. Obs.
a. 1225. Juliana, 48. Þat him eoc euch neil & blakede of þe blode.
c. 1340. Cursor M. (Trin.). 14747. To blake [Cott. blaken] þo bigan her brewes.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 2388. Wanne þe nyȝt gynt blake.
a. 1400. Syr Percyv., 688. Now sone … salle wee see Whose browes schalle blakke!
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 107. So my browes blaky To the doore wylle I wyn.
2. trans. To make black; now esp. to put black color on. Cf. BLACKEN.
c. 1315. Shoreham, 155. The wyte the vayrer hyt maketh, And selve more hyt blaketh.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monkes T., 141. Til that his fleisch was for the venym blaked.
a. 1400. Syr Percyv., 1056. Thare he and the sowdane salle mete, His browes to blake.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., i. § 6. Every coriar shall well and sufficiently corie and blacke the said Lether tanned.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, IX. 26. Having blackt his face, and died his hair.
1748. Franklin, Wks. (1840), 207. The paper will be blacked by the smoke.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 49. Crown-glass, blacked on one side.
1842. Tennyson, Simeon Styl., 75. I lay … Black’d with thy branding thunder.
b. spec. To clean and polish shoes and other black leather articles with BLACKING.
1557. North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr. (1582), 369 a. In varnishing hys sword and dagger, blacking his bootes.
1684. Foxe’s A. & M., III. 907. Causing his shoos to be blacked.
1812. J. & H. Smith, Rej. Addr., ii. (1873), 12. My uncle’s porter, Samuel Hughes, Came in at six to black the shoes.
† c. To drape with black. Obs.
1664. Lamont, Diary, 25 Nov. The isle being blacked—with a number of dependants on the pall of black velvet.
3. trans. a. To draw or figure in black.
1840. Browning, Sordello, IV. 374. The grim, twynecked eagle, coarsely blacked With ochre on the naked wall.
b. To black out: to obliterate with black.
1850. Browning, Christmas Eve, Wks. 1868, V. 175. If he blacked out in a blot Thy brief life’s pleasantness.
185[?]. Gen. Gordon, Lett., 121. The Russian censor who blacks out all matter that is displeasing to the Government.
4. fig. To stain, sully; to defame, represent as ‘black.’ (Usually blacken.)
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 38. Blackyn’ or make blake, vitupero, increpo.
1625. Fletcher, Nt. Walker, II. 216. Thy other sins which black thy soul.
1683. D. A., Art Converse, 16. To black his repute.
a. 1845. Hood, Trumpet, xxx. Not that elegant ladies … ever detract, Or lend a brush when a friend is black’d.
† 5. intr. To poach as one of the ‘Blacks’: see BLACK sb. 6 b. Obs. rare.
1789. G. White, Selborne, vi. As soon as they began blacking, they [the deer] were reduced to about fifty head.
Comb. † black-shoe (boy) = SHOE-BLACK.
1732. Fielding, Covent Gard. Jrnl., No. 61. A rebuke given by a blackshoe boy to another.
1746. W. Horsley, The Fool (1748), I. 5. [He] reduces himself to the Level of Highwaymen, Footmen, and Black-shoe Boys.
