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A dark brown pigment extracted from the soot of wood.

into metallic plates by means of an acid. -- To bite the thumb at (any one), formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy. "Do you bite your thumb at us " Shak. -- To bite the tongue, to keep silence. Shak.

t which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish. "Great barkers are no biters." Camden.

Destitute of light, or incapable of reflecting it; of the color of soot or coal; of the darkest or a very dark color, the opposite of white; characterized by such a color; as, black cloth; black hair or eyes. O night, with hue so black! Shak.

A sweet and juicy variety of European grape, of a dark purplish black color, much grown under glass in northern latitudes.

A dungeon or dark cell in a prison; a military lock-up or guardroom; -- now commonly with allusion to the cell (the Black Hole) in a fort at Calcutta, into which 146 English prisoners were thrust by the nabob Suraja Dowla on the night of June 20, 17656, and in which 123 of the prisoners died before morning from lack of…

Plumbago; graphite.It leaves a blackish mark somewhat like lead. See Graphite.

ack plumage, blue legs and feet, bright red comb and wattles, and white face. They are remarkable as egg layers.

A copious vomiting of dark-colored matter; or the substance so discharged; -- one of the most fatal symptoms in yellow fever.

Dark-visaged; swart.

Having a black, dark, or gloomy face or aspect.

Of or pertaining to the days in the calendar not marked with red letters as saints' days. Hence: Unlucky; inauspicious.

A beautiful warbler of the United States (Dendroica Blackburniæ). The male is strongly marked with orange, yellow, and black on the head and neck, and has an orange-yellow breast.

To make dark; to darken; to cloud. "Blackened the whole heavens." South.

A heart-shaped cherry with a very dark-colored skin.

In a black manner; darkly, in color; gloomily; threateningly; atrociously. "Deeds so blackly grim and horrid." Feltham.

y or state of being black; black color; atrociousness or enormity in wickedness. They're darker now than blackness. Donne.

A spreading thorny shrub or small tree (Prunus spinosa), with blackish bark, and bearing little black plums, which are called sloes; the sloe.

Nebraska; -- a nickname alluding to the dark color of the water of its rivers, due to the presence of a black vegetable mold in the soil.

A name given to several dark-colored timbers. The East Indian black wood is from the tree Dalbergia latifolia. Balfour.