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noun Black n. 1.That which is destitute of light or whiteness; the darkest color, or rather a destitution of all color; as, a cloth has a good black. "Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons, and the suit of night." 2.A black pigment or dye. 3.A negro; a person whose skin is of a black color, or shaded with black; esp. a member or descendant of certain African races. 4.A black garment or dress; as, she wears black; pl. (Obs.) Mourning garments of a black color; funereal drapery. "Friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like show death terrible." "That was the full time they used to wear blacks for the death of their fathers." 5.The part of a thing which is distinguished from the rest by being black. "The black or sight of the eye." 6.A stain; a spot; a smooch. "Defiling her white lawn of chastity with ugly blacks of lust." Black and white, writing or print; as, I must have that statement in black and white. Blue black, a pigment of a blue black color. Ivory black, a fine kind of animal charcoal prepared by calcining ivory or bones. When ground it is the chief ingredient of the ink used in copperplate printing. Berlin black. See under Berlin.
Ivory n. (pl. ivories) 1.The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility. Note: Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc. 2.The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc. 3.Any carving executed in ivory. 4.pl. Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. (Slang) Ivory black. See under Black, n. Ivory gull (Zool.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts. Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts. Ivory shell (Zool.), any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots. Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut (above).
Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48
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