black v.
1. (UK Und.) to colour one’s face black with burnt cork, as a ‘nigger minstrel’.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Signor Lippo 28: I had to do banjo now, so I had to black, and very particular they were blacking. |
2. to blackmail.
| [ | | Satirist (London) 4 Dec. 278/2: For language and deeds that are foul he's the man, / As he himself swears he is matchless at blacking]. |
| Gunner 244: If I ‘blacked’ you after this I should be cutting my own throat . | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 204: Richard Lambert’s being blacked and all. | |
| Phenomena in Crime 253: Blacking a steam-tug. Blackmailing a ‘mug’ (or victim). | |
| Und. Nights 157: He was [...] doing life for blacking a clergyman. | |
| Dreadful Door 124: He [...] took naughty photos of them and then blacked them [OED]. | |
| GBH 229: ‘[Y]ou’d been blacking him [...] because you happened to come across some pictures he had taken [...] with a fourteen-year-old. |
3. (UK Und.) to extort money, e.g. from a club.
| Boss of Britain’s Underworld 155: We had cleared all the cheap racketeers out. There was no longer any blacking of club owners and restaurant keepers. |
In derivatives
(UK juv.) a male initiation ceremony whereby a boy has his genitals covered in black shoe polish.
 | OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 blacking n. initiation ceremony involving the forced undressing of a boy by other boys, to allow his genitalia to be covered in boot polish. |
In phrases
(UK police/und.) to fail, to make a mess.
| No Hiding Place! 189/2: Black it upBungle it. |
In exclamations
(US black) an excl. of surprise.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | (con. late 1920s) Little Ham Act I: Well, black my soul: Joe Louis! |