Black-hearted adjective Having a wicked, malignant disposition; morally bad.

Black-jack noun
1. (Min.) A name given by English miners to sphalerite, or zinc blende; -- called also false galena . See Blende .

2. Caramel or burnt sugar, used to color wines, spirits, ground coffee, etc.

3. A large leather vessel for beer, etc. [ Obsolete]

4. (Botany) The Quercus nigra , or barren oak.

5. The ensign of a pirate.

Black-letter adjective
1. Written or printed in black letter; as, a black-letter manuscript or book.

2. Given to the study of books in black letter; that is, of old books; out of date.

Kemble, a black-letter man!
J. Boaden.

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

Black-mouthed adjective Using foul or scurrilous language; slanderous.

Blackfish noun
1. (Zoology) A small kind of whale, of the genus Globicephalus , of several species. The most common is G. melas . Also sometimes applied to other whales of larger size.

2. (Zoology) The tautog of New England ( Tautoga ).

3. (Zoology) The black sea bass ( Centropristis atrarius ) of the Atlantic coast. It is excellent food fish; -- locally called also black Harry .

4. (Zoology) A fish of southern Europe ( Centrolophus pompilus ) of the Mackerel family.

5. (Zoology) The female salmon in the spawning season.

» The name is locally applied to other fishes.

Blackfoot adjective Of or pertaining to the Blackfeet; as, a Blackfoot Indian. -- noun A Blackfoot Indian.

Blackguard noun [ Black + guard .]
1. The scullions and lower menials of a court, or of a nobleman's household, who, in a removal from one residence to another, had charge of the kitchen utensils, and being smutted by them, were jocularly called the "black guard"; also, the servants and hangers-on of an army. [ Obsolete]

A lousy slave, that . . . rode with the black guard in the duke's carriage, 'mongst spits and dripping pans.
Webster (1612).

2. The criminals and vagrants or vagabonds of a town or community, collectively. [ Obsolete]

3. A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough.

A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard .
Macaulay.

4. A vagrant; a bootblack; a gamin. [ Obsolete]

Blackguard transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Blackguarded ; present participle & verbal noun Blackguarding .] To revile or abuse in scurrilous language. Southey.

Blackguard adjective Scurrilous; abusive; low; worthless; vicious; as, blackguard language.

Blackguardism noun The conduct or language of a blackguard; ruffianism.

Blackguardly adverb & adjective In the manner of or resembling a blackguard; abusive; scurrilous; ruffianly.

Blackhead noun (Zoology) The scaup duck.

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

Blacking noun
1. Any preparation for making things black; esp. one for giving a black luster to boots and shoes, or to stoves.

2. The act or process of making black.

Blackish adjective Somewhat black.

Blacklead transitive verb To coat or to polish with black lead.

Blackleg noun
1. A notorious gambler. [ Colloq.]

2. A disease among calves and sheep, characterized by a settling of gelatinous matter in the legs, and sometimes in the neck. [ Eng.]

Blacklist transitive verb To put in a black list as deserving of suspicion, censure, or punishment; esp. to put in a list of persons stigmatized as insolvent or untrustworthy, -- as tradesmen and employers do for mutual protection; as, to blacklist a workman who has been discharged. See Black list , under Black , adjective

If you blacklist us, we will boycott you.
John Swinton.

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

Blackmail noun [ Black + mail a piece of money.]
1. A certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other thing, anciently paid, in the north of England and south of Scotland, to certain men who were allied to robbers, or moss troopers, to be by them protected from pillage. Sir W. Scott.

2. Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.

3. (Eng. Law) Black rent, or rent paid in corn, flesh, or the lowest coin, a opposed to "white rent", which paid in silver.

To levy blackmail , to extort money by threats, as of injury to one's reputation.

Blackmail transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Blackmailed ; present participle & verbal noun Blackmailing .] To extort money from by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, as injury to reputation, distress of mind, etc.; as, to blackmail a merchant by threatening to expose an alleged fraud. [ U. S.]

Blackmailer noun One who extorts, or endeavors to extort, money, by black mailing.

Blackmailing noun The act or practice of extorting money by exciting fears of injury other than bodily harm, as injury to reputation.

Blackmoor noun See Blackamoor .

Blackness noun The quality or state of being black; black color; atrociousness or enormity in wickedness.

They're darker now than blackness .
Donne.

Blackpoll noun [ Black + poll head.] (Zoology) A warbler of the United States ( Dendroica striata ).

Blackroot noun (Botany) See Colicroot .

Blacks noun plural
1. The name of a kind of in used in copperplate printing, prepared from the charred husks of the grape, and residue of the wine press.

2. Soot flying in the air. [ Eng.]

3. Black garments, etc. See Black , noun , 4.

Blacksalter noun One who makes crude potash, or black salts.

Blacksmith noun [ Black (in allusion to the color of the metal) + smith . Confer Whitesmith .]
1. A smith who works in iron with a forge, and makes iron utensils, horseshoes, etc.

The blacksmith may forge what he pleases.
Howell.

2. (Zoology) A fish of the Pacific coast ( Chromis, or Heliastes, punctipinnis ), of a blackish color.

Blackstrap (-străp) noun
1. A mixture of spirituous liquor (usually rum) and molasses.

No blackstrap to-night; switchel, or ginger pop.
Judd.

2. Bad port wine; any common wine of the Mediterranean; -- so called by sailors.

Blacktail noun [ Black + tail .]
1. (Zoology) A fish; the ruff or pope.

2. (Zoology) The black-tailed deer ( Cervus or Cariacus Columbianus ) of California and Oregon; also, the mule deer of the Rocky Mountains. See Mule deer .

Blackthorn noun (Botany) (a) A spreading thorny shrub or small tree ( Prunus spinosa ), with blackish bark, and bearing little black plums, which are called sloes; the sloe. (b) A species of Cratægus or hawthorn ( C. tomentosa ). Both are used for hedges.

Blackwater State 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.

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

Blackwork noun Work wrought by blacksmiths; -- so called in distinction from that wrought by whitesmiths. Knight.

Bladder noun [ Middle English bladder , bleddre , Anglo-Saxon bl...dre , bl...ddre ; akin to Icelandic bla...ra , SW. bläddra , Danish blære , Dutch blaar , Old High German blātara the bladder in the body of animals, German blatter blister, bustule; all from the same root as Anglo-Saxon blāwan , English blow , to puff. See Blow to puff.]

1. (Anat.) A bag or sac in animals, which serves as the receptacle of some fluid; as, the urinary bladder ; the gall bladder ; -- applied especially to the urinary bladder, either within the animal, or when taken out and inflated with air.

2. Any vesicle or blister, especially if filled with air, or a thin, watery fluid.

3. (Botany) A distended, membranaceous pericarp.

4. Anything inflated, empty, or unsound. "To swim with bladders of philosophy." Rochester.

Bladder nut , or Bladder tree (Botany) , a genus of plants ( Staphylea ) with bladderlike seed pods. -- Bladder pod (Botany) , a genus of low herbs ( Vesicaria ) with inflated seed pods. -- Bladdor senna (Botany) , a genus of shrubs ( Colutea ), with membranaceous, inflated pods. -- Bladder worm (Zoology) , the larva of any species of tapeworm ( Tænia ), found in the flesh or other parts of animals. See Measle , Cysticercus . -- Bladder wrack (Botany) , the common black rock weed of the seacoast ( Fucus nodosus and F. vesiculosus ) -- called also bladder tangle . See Wrack .

Bladder transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Bladdered ; present participle & verbal noun Bladdering .]
1. To swell out like a bladder with air; to inflate. [ Obsolete] G. Fletcher.

2. To put up in bladders; as, bladdered lard.

Bladderwort noun (Botany) A genus ( Utricularia ) of aquatic or marshy plants, which usually bear numerous vesicles in the divisions of the leaves. These serve as traps for minute animals. See Ascidium .

Bladdery adjective Having bladders; also, resembling a bladder.

Blade (blād) noun [ Middle English blade , blad , Anglo-Saxon blæd leaf; akin to Old Saxon , D., Dan., & Swedish blad , Icelandic blað , Old High German blat , German blatt , and perhaps to Latin folium , Greek fy`llon . The root is probably the same as that of Anglo-Saxon blōwan , English blow , to blossom. See Blow to blossom, and confer Foil leaf of metal.]

1. Properly, the leaf, or flat part of the leaf, of any plant, especially of gramineous plants. The term is sometimes applied to the spire of grasses.

The crimson dulse . . . with its waving blade .
Percival.

First the blade , then ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
Mark iv. 28.

2. The cutting part of an instrument; as, the blade of a knife or a sword.

3. The broad part of an oar; also, one of the projecting arms of a screw propeller.

4. The scapula or shoulder blade.

5. plural (Architecture) The principal rafters of a roof. Weale.

6. plural (Com.) The four large shell plates on the sides, and the five large ones of the middle, of the carapace of the sea turtle, which yield the best tortoise shell. De Colange.

7. A sharp-witted, dashing, wild, or reckless, fellow; -- a word of somewhat indefinite meaning.

He saw a turnkey in a trice
Fetter a troublesome blade .
Coleridge.

Blade (blād) transitive verb To furnish with a blade.

Blade intransitive verb To put forth or have a blade.

As sweet a plant, as fair a flower, is faded
As ever in the Muses' garden bladed .
P. Fletcher.

Blade noun The flat part of the tongue immediately behind the tip, or point.

"Lower blade " implies, of course, the lower instead of the upper surface of the tongue.

H. Sweet.

Bladebone (-bōn`) noun The scapula. See Blade , 4.

Bladed (blād"ĕd) adjective
1. Having a blade or blades; as, a two- bladed knife.

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass.
Shak.

2. Divested of blades; as, bladed corn.

3. (Min.) Composed of long and narrow plates, shaped like the blade of a knife.

Bladefish noun (Zoology) A long, thin, marine fish of Europe ( Trichiurus lepturus ); the ribbon fish.

Bladesmith noun A sword cutler. [ Obsolete]

Blady adjective Consisting of blades. [ R.] " Blady grass." Drayton.

Blæ adjective [ See Blue .] Dark blue or bluish gray; lead-colored. [ Scot.]