Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - black

(blacker, blackest, blacks, blacking, blacked) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Something that is black is of the darkest colour that there is, the colour of the sky at night when there is no light at all. She was wearing a black coat with a white collar... He had thick black hair... I wear a lot of black... He was dressed all in black. COLOUR 2. A black person belongs to a race of people with dark skins, especially a race from Africa. He worked for the rights of black people... ...the traditions of the black community. ADJ 3. Black people are sometimes referred to as blacks. This use could cause offence. There are about thirty-one million blacks in the US. N-COUNT: usu pl 4. Black coffee or tea has no milk or cream added to it. A cup of black tea or black coffee contains no calories... I drink coffee black. ADJ: ADJ n, v n ADJ 5. If you describe a situation as black, you are emphasizing that it is very bad indeed. It was, he said later, one of the blackest days of his political career... The future for the industry looks even blacker. ADJ c darkgreen]emphasis 6. If someone is in a black mood, they feel very miserable and depressed. Her mood was blacker than ever. ADJ 7. Black humour involves jokes about sad or difficult situations. ‘So you can all go over there and get shot,’ he said, with the sort of black humour common among British troops here... It’s a black comedy of racial prejudice, mistaken identity and thwarted expectations. ADJ: usu ADJ n 8. People who believe in black magic believe that it is possible to communicate with evil spirits. He was also alleged to have conducted black magic ceremonies... The King was unjustly accused of practising the black arts. ADJ: ADJ n 9. If you say that someone is black and blue, you mean that they are badly bruised. Whenever she refused, he’d beat her black and blue... Bud’s nose was still black and blue. PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR 10. If a person or an organization is in the black, they do not owe anyone any money. Until his finances are in the black I don’t want to get married. ? in the red PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v 11. If someone gives you a black look, they look at you in a way that shows that they are very angry about something. Passing my stall, she cast black looks at the amount of stuff still unsold. PHRASE: N inflects, usu PHR after v