B Dictionary
Black lead
Plumbago graphite It leaves a blackish mark somewhat like lead See Graphite...
Black letter
The old English or Gothic letter in which the Early English manuscripts were written and the first English books were printed It was conspicuous for its blackness See Type...
Black letter
Black letter, means a letter having wide acceptance and great authority and often written down, Webster's Dictionary of Law, Indian Edn. (2005), p. 53....
Black letter law
Black letter law, means one or more legal principles that are old, fundamental, and well-settled. The terms refer to the law printed in books set in Gothic type, which is very bold and black, Black Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 163....
Black list
Black list. The term given to any list of persons with whom the person or body compiling the list advises that no one should have dealings of the character indicated. Thus the list of defaulters on the Stock Exchange is so named, and various societies and individuals also publish lists with a similar purpose. By s. 6 of the Licensing Act, 1902 (2 Edw. 7, c. 28), there is power to put an 'habitual drunkard,' if he consents [Commissioner of Metropolitan Police v. Donovan, (1903) 1 KB 895], on a list kept by the police, and this renders him liable to a penalty on summary conviction for obtaining intoxicating liquor within three years, and the licensee or other person supplying him is also liable. See DRUNKENNESS.The publication of a black list may constitute a libel if it conveys a defamatory and untrue meaning. 'Black lists are real instruments of coercion, as every man whose name is on one soon discovers to his cost, Quim v. Leathem, 1901 AC 538; see also Ware & De Freville, Ltd. v. Mot...
black lung
the popular name for a form of the chronic lung disease pneumoconiosis which is observed among coal miners and is caused by the inhalation of coal dust It is thus named because of the black appearance of the lungs pneumomelanosis of those affected with the disease See also the related condition anthracosis...
Black mail
Black mail [fr. maille, Fr., a small piece of money], a certain rent of money, coin, or other thing, anciently paid to persons upon or near the borders, who were men of influence and allied with robbers and brigands, for protection from the devastations of the latter. It was in fact a species of insurance. This was rendered illegal by 43 Eliz. C. 13. The same practice prevailed in Scotland, where it was also illegal. Also rent paid in cattle, otherwise called neat-gild; and all rents not paid in silver are called reditus nigri (black mail or rents), by way of distinction from reditus albi (blanch-firmes, or white-rents).But the term is used in modern times to signify extortion of money by threatening letters or threats to accuse of crime--an offence punishable, if the crime is punishable, by death or penal servitude for not less than seven years, or be an attempt at rape, or be an 'infamous crime,' i.e., sodomy, etc., by penal servitude for life, and in the case of a male under sixteen...
Black Maria
a paddy wagon...
black market
the illicit buying and selling of goods in violation of price controls rationing tax laws prohibition of sale etc...
Black Monday
Easter Monday so called from the severity of that day in 1360 which was so unusual that many of Edward IIIs soldiers then before Paris died from the cold...