(~er, ~est, ~s, ~ing, ~ed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
Something that is ~ is of the darkest colour that there is, the colour of the sky at night when there is no light at all.
She was wearing a ~ coat with a white collar...
He had thick ~ hair...
I wear a lot of ~...
He was dressed all in ~.
COLOUR
2.
A ~ person belongs to a race of people with dark skins, especially a race from Africa.
He worked for the rights of ~ people...
...the traditions of the ~ community.
ADJ
3.
Black people are sometimes referred to as ~s. This use could cause offence.
There are about thirty-one million ~s in the US.
N-COUNT: usu pl
4.
Black coffee or tea has no milk or cream added to it.
A cup of ~ tea or ~ coffee contains no calories...
I drink coffee ~.
ADJ: ADJ n, v n ADJ
5.
If you describe a situation as ~, you are emphasizing that it is very bad indeed.
It was, he said later, one of the ~est days of his political career...
The future for the industry looks even ~er.
ADJ emphasis
6.
If someone is in a ~ mood, they feel very miserable and depressed.
Her mood was ~er than ever.
ADJ
7.
Black humour involves jokes about sad or difficult situations.
‘So you can all go over there and get shot,’ he said, with the sort of ~ humour common among British troops here...
It’s a ~ comedy of racial prejudice, mistaken identity and thwarted expectations.
ADJ: usu ADJ n
8.
People who believe in ~ magic believe that it is possible to communicate with evil spirits.
He was also alleged to have conducted ~ magic ceremonies...
The King was unjustly accused of practising the ~ arts.
ADJ: ADJ n
9.
If you say that someone is ~ and blue, you mean that they are badly bruised.
Whenever she refused, he’d beat her ~ and blue...
Bud’s nose was still ~ and blue.
PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR
10.
If a person or an organization is in the ~, they do not owe anyone any money.
Until his finances are in the ~ I don’t want to get married.
? in the red
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
11.
If someone gives you a ~ look, they look at you in a way that shows that they are very angry about something.
Passing my stall, she cast ~ looks at the amount of stuff still unsold.
PHRASE: N inflects, usu PHR after v