Blacker vs Blacken - What's the difference?
blacker | blacken |
(black)
(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
, 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.
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.
Expressing menace, or discontent; threatening; sullen.
Illegitimate, illegal or disgraced.
* 1866 , The Contemporary Review , London: A. Strahan, page 338.
(Ireland, informal) Overcrowded.
(of coffee or tea) Without any cream, milk or 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).
(Germany, politics) Related to the .
(secrecy) Relating to a initiative whose existence or exact nature must remain withheld from the general public.
The colour/color perceived in the absence of light.
* Shakespeare
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 :
(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)
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.
Part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black.
* Sir K. Digby
(obsolete) A stain; a spot.
* Rowley
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]
* 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]
* 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]
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]
* 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]
* 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]
(British) To boycott something or someone, usually as part of an industrial dispute.
To make black.
To make dirty.
To defame or sully.
To cook (meat or fish) by coating with pepper, etc., and quickly searing in a hot pan.
To become black.
As an adjective blacker
is (black).As a verb blacken is
to make black.blacker
English
Adjective
(head)black
English
(wikipedia black)Adjective
(er)citation
- black''' drinking fountain; '''black hospital
- ...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.
- He shot her a black look.
- Foodstuffs were rationed and, as in other countries in a similar situation, the black market was flourishing.
- Jim drinks his coffee black , but Ellen prefers it with creamer.
- The black pieces in this chess set are made of dark blue glass.
- After the election, the parties united in a black -yellow alliance.
- 5 percent of the Defense Department funding will go to black projects.
Synonyms
* (dark and colourless) dark * (without light) dark, gloomy, pitch-blackAntonyms
* (dark and colourless) white, nonblack, unblack * (without light) bright, illuminated, litNoun
(en noun)black colour:
- Black is the badge of hell, / The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night.
- Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored face, and friends weeping, and blacks , and obsequies, and the like, show death terrible.
- Prize-winning books continue a trend toward increased representation of blacks , accounting for most of the books with exclusively black characters.
- At this point black makes a disastrous move.
- the black or sight of the eye
- 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 descentAntonyms
* whiteVerb
(en verb)- "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."
- 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.
- I saw red, and instead of a cab I fetched that policeman. Of course father did black his eye.
- ...he must catch, curry, and saddle his own horse; he must black his own brogans (for he will not be able to buy boots).
- But in a moment he went to Greenidge's bedside, and said, shyly, in a low voice, "Shall I black your boots for you?"
- 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.
Synonyms
* (make black) blacken, darken, swarten * (boycott) blackball, blacklistDerived 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 blackSee also
* monochrome * *Statistics
* 1000 English basic words ----blacken
English
Verb
(en verb)- Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men. — Napoleon Bonaparte
- The sky blackened as the storm clouds rolled in.