Green’s Dictionary of Slang

black v.

[abbr.]

1. (UK Und.) to colour one’s face black with burnt cork, as a ‘nigger minstrel’.

[UK]P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 28: I had to do banjo now, so I had to black, and very particular they were blacking.

2. to blackmail.

[[UK]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].
[UK]E. Wallace Gunner 244: If I ‘blacked’ you after this I should be cutting my own throat .
[UK]J. Curtis You’re in the Racket, Too 204: Richard Lambert’s being blacked and all.
[UK]V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 253: Blacking a steam-tug. Blackmailing a ‘mug’ (or victim).
[UK]‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 157: He was [...] doing life for blacking a clergyman.
[UK]G. Sims Dreadful Door 124: He [...] took naughty photos of them and then blacked them [OED].
[UK]T. Lewis 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.

[UK]B. Hill 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

blacking (n.)

(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

In exclamations

black my soul!

(US black) an excl. of surprise.

[US](con. late 1920s) L. Hughes Little Ham Act I: Well, black my soul: Joe Louis!