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While vs Black - What's the difference?

while | black |

As a noun while

is an uncertain duration of time, a period of time.

As a conjunction while

is during the same time that.

As a verb while

is to pass (time) idly.

As a proper noun black is

.

while

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An uncertain duration of time, a period of time.
  • He lectured for quite a long while .

    Conjunction

    (wikipedia while) (English Conjunctions)
  • During the same time that.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=While the powwow was going on the big woman came back again. She was consider'ble rumpled and scratched up, but there was fire in her eye.}}
  • * 1948 , , North from Mexico / The Spanish-Speaking People of The United States , J. B. Lippincott Company, page 25,
  • While De Anza was exploring the Bay of San Francisco, seeking a site for the presidio, the American colonists on the eastern seaboard, three thousand miles away, were celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.}}
  • Although.
  • * 2013 September 28, (Kenan Malik), " London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):
  • While Britain’s recession has been deep and unforgiving, in London it has been relatively shallow.
  • (Northern England, Scotland) Until.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • I may be conveyed into your chamber; I'll lie under your bed while midnight.
  • As long as.
  • * I. Watts
  • Use your memory; you will sensibly experience a gradual improvement, while you take care not to overload it.

    Verb

    (whil)
  • To pass (time) idly.
  • * Longfellow
  • The lovely lady whiled the hours away.
  • To loiter.
  • (Spectator)

    Derived terms

    * while away * meanwhile * the while

    black

    English

    (wikipedia black)

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (of an object) Absorbing all light and reflecting none; dark and hueless.
  • Without light.
  • (sometimes capitalized) Of or relating to any of various ethnic groups having dark pigmentation of the skin.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=November 7, author=Matt Bai, title=Winning a Second Term, Obama Will Confront Familiar Headwinds, work=New York Times citation
  • , passage=The country’s first black president, and its first president to reach adulthood after the Vietnam War and Watergate, Mr. Obama seemed like a digital-age leader who could at last dislodge the stalemate between those who clung to the government of the Great Society, on the one hand, and those who disdained the very idea of government, on the other.}}
  • (chiefly, historical) Designated for use by those ethnic groups which have dark pigmentation of the skin.
  • black''' drinking fountain; '''black hospital
  • Bad; evil; ill-omened.
  • * 1655 , Benjamin Needler, Expository notes, with practical observations; towards the opening of the five first chapters of the first book of Moses called Genesis. London: N. Webb and W. Grantham, page 168.
  • ...what a black day would that be, when the Ordinances of Jesus Christ should as it were be excommunicated, and cast out of the Church of Christ.
  • Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
  • He shot her a black look.
  • Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
  • * 1866 , The Contemporary Review , London: A. Strahan, page 338.
  • Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.
  • (Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
  • (of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk or creamer.
  • Jim drinks his coffee black , but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
  • (board games, chess) Of or relating to the playing pieces of a board game deemed to belong to the "black" set (in chess the set used by the player who moves second) (qualifier, often regardless of the pieces' actual colour).
  • The black pieces in this chess set are made of dark blue glass.
  • (Germany, politics) Related to the .
  • After the election, the parties united in a black -yellow alliance.
  • (secrecy) Relating to a initiative whose existence or exact nature must remain withheld from the general public.
  • 5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.

    Synonyms

    * (dark and colourless) dark * (without light) dark, gloomy, pitch-black

    Antonyms

    * (dark and colourless) white, nonblack, unblack * (without light) bright, illuminated, lit

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The colour/color perceived in the absence of light.
  • black colour:   
  • * Shakespeare
  • Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.
  • A black dye or pigment.
  • A pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of black pigment.
  • (in the plural) Black cloth hung up at funerals.
  • * 1625 , Francis Bacon, "Of Death", Essays :
  • Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks , and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
  • (sometimes capitalised) A person of African, Aborigine, or Maori descent; a dark-skinned person.
  • * 2004 , Anthony Joseph Paul Cortese, Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities in Advertising (page 108)
  • Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks , accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters.
  • The black ball.
  • (baseball) The edge of home plate
  • (British) a type of firecracker that is really more dark brown in colour.
  • (informal) blackcurrant syrup (in mixed drinks, e.g. snakebite and black, cider and black).
  • In chess and similar games, the person playing with the black set of pieces.
  • At this point black makes a disastrous move.
  • Part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black.
  • * Sir K. Digby
  • the black or sight of the eye
  • (obsolete) A stain; a spot.
  • * Rowley
  • defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust

    Synonyms

    * (colour or absence of light) ** blackness * (person) ** (standard) African American (in the US), Afro-American (in the US), person of color (US) or person of colour (UK), person of African descent

    Antonyms

    * white

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make black, to blacken.
  • * 1859 , Oliver Optic, Poor and Proud; or, The Fortunes of Katy Redburn, a Story for Young Folks [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=506735625&tag=Optic,+Oliver:+Poor+and+proud;+or,+The+fortunes+of+Katy+Redburn,+a+story+for+young+folks,+1859&query=+black+your&id=OptPoor]
  • "I don't want to fight; but you are a mean, dirty blackguard, or you wouldn't have treated a girl like that," replied Tommy, standing as stiff as a stake before the bully.
    "Say that again, and I'll black your eye for you."
  • * 1911 , Edna Ferber, Buttered Side Down [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=302756157&tag=Ferber,+Edna:+Buttered+Side+Down,+1911&query=+black+your&id=FerButt]
  • Ted, you can black your face, and dye your hair, and squint, and some fine day, sooner or later, somebody'll come along and blab the whole thing.
  • * 1922 , John Galsworthy, A Family Man: In Three Acts [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC00645065&id=vw6G-rbudVUC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%22black+his+eye%22&as_brr=1]
  • I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye.
  • To apply blacking to something.
  • * 1853 , Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=600775507&tag=Stowe,+Harriet+Beecher:+The+Key+to+Uncle+Tom's+Cabin,+1853&query=+black+his&id=StoKeyu]
  • ...he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy boots).
  • * 1861 , George William Curtis, Trumps: A Novel [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=160888866&tag=EAF538&query=+black+your&id=eaf538]
  • But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?"
  • * 1911 , Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=/texts/english/modeng/publicsearch/modengpub.o2w&act=surround&offset=91865750&tag=Beerbohm,+Max,+Sir,+1872-1956:+Zuleika+Dobson,+1911&query=+black+your&id=BeeZule]
  • Loving you, I could conceive no life sweeter than hers — to be always near you; to black your boots, carry up your coals, scrub your doorstep; always to be working for you, hard and humbly and without thanks.
  • (British) To boycott something or someone, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
  • Synonyms

    * (make black) blacken, darken, swarten * (boycott) blackball, blacklist

    Derived terms

    * black alder * blackamoor * black-and-blue * black-and-tan * black and white * black arts * black bag job * blackball * black bean * black bear * black belt * blackberry * black bile * blackboard * black body * black book * black bottom * black bottom pie * black box * black bread * black bread mold * black bun * blackbutt * blackcap * black cherry * black coffee * black cohosh * black comedy * black cow * blackcurrant * blackdamp * Black Death * black diamond * black dwarf * black economy * blacken * black-eyed * black-eyed bean * black-eyed pea * black-eyed Susan * black-faced * blackfish * black flag * blackfly * Black Forest * Black Forest cake, Black Forest gateau * black frost * black game * blackguard * black gum * blackhead * black-hearted * black hole * black humor, black humour * black ice * blackjack * black knight * black-lead * blackleg * black letter * black light * black list * black-list * blackly * black lung * blackmail * black magic * black man * Black Maria * black mark * black market * black mass * black measles * black money * black mustard * blackness * black nightshade * black out * blackout * Black Panther * black pepper * blackpoll * black powder * Black Power * black propaganda * black pudding * black racer * black raspberry * Black Rod * black rot * Black Sea * black shale * black sheep * black-sick * black skimmer * blacksmith * black spot * black stork * blackstrap * black stump * black swan * black tea * blackthorn * black tie * blacktop * Black Tuesday * black up * black velvet * Black Virgin * black walnut * blackwater * black widow * blackwood * blackwork * carbon black * coal black * ivory black * Large Black * long black * nonblack * penny black * pitch-black * platinum black * short black * slate black * television black

    See also

    * monochrome * *

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----