black and whiteadj.n.
/ˌblak (ə)n(d) ˈwʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈˌblæk ən ˈ(h)waɪt/ A. adj.
1.
a. Marked with a pattern of black and white areas.
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the world > matter > colour > variegation > [adjective] > variegated with specific colours
hasweda1325
pied1382
black and white1395
blue and white1551
bauson1587
piebald1743
tortoiseshell1803
testudinarious1826
pepper-and-salta1843
tortoise1902
salt-and-pepper1915
pepper-and-salty1952
1395 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 5 (MED) I deuyse to Iohane my doughter..a bed paled blak and whit.
1580 J. Florio tr. J. Cartier Shorte Narr. Two Nauigations Newe Fraunce 2 Birdes,..some of the which are as big as Iayes, blacke and white, with beakes lyke vnto Crowes.
c1612 W. Strachey Hist. Trav. Virginia (1953) i. x. 124 Squirrells they haue..some blackish, or black and white.
1664 T. Killigrew 2nd Pt. Thomaso v. i, in Comedies & Trag. 444 Switzers with two-colour'd Coats, Knaves of divers colours, black and white Knaves, such Proteans a Lady knows not when to love or hate them.
1739 W. Shenstone Let. in Wks. (1769) III. ii. 5 If I had been a hen..I believe I should have done as much for my chickens as yonder great black-and-white hen does.
1792 W. Bartram Trav. N. & S. Carolina (new ed.) ii. x. 293 A[nas] minor picta; the little black and white duck called butterback.
1835 W. Kirby On Power of God in Creation of Animals II. xix. 298 There is a very common black and white spider amongst the vagrants.
1878 R. L. Stevenson Inland Voy. 43 In the meadows wandered black and white cattle fantastically marked.
1904 Classical Rev. 18 132/1 An appearance of gray at a distance..[produced] by chemical mixture of the black and white bodies.
1955 Times 20 May 10/5 Some bulls—black and white beasts of the Holmogorky breed, somewhat like British Friesians.
2004 Wildlife Conservation Feb. 33/1 A trim, black-and-white, crow-size bird, the cahow is an elegant flyer.
b. Designating a house painted black and white, esp. one with white walls and black timbers.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [adjective] > house of specific material or construction
framed1623
black and white1656
stucco1786
unchinked1819
Wealden1956
Airey1982
1656 All Gentlemen take Notice: Remedy for Gout (single sheet) (advt.) You may hear of this Gentleman..at the corner of the Black and White House, where one of these Bills shall stick.
1735 J. Mottley Stow's Surv. London & Westm. II. v. 780/2 There was a fair House near the Church, called, The Black and White House, formerly belonging to Sir Thomas Viner, some Time Alderman and Mayor of London.
c1830 E. Grosvenor in G. Huxley Lady Eliz. & Grosvenors (1965) ii. 45 The house black and white outside and good carved oak within.
1886 R. Holland Gloss. Words County of Chester Crooks, the main timbers of an old black and white house.
1936 M. Allis Eng. Prelude xv. 116 The same holds true of old houses, in which Shrewsbury is very rich, especially the type called ‘black and white’.
1968 ‘R. Simons’ Death on Display xi. 171 High Tor was a black and white two-car-garage type, with a weedy drive, and..a large wooden cross above the front porch.
2005 Bed & Breakfast Stops 237 This beautiful 16th century Grade 1 Listed black and white house is set in the delightful village of Knockin.
c. In the names of birds and other animals: characterized by a pattern of black and white markings. Cf. pied adj.1 and n. Compounds 1b.
ΚΠ
1676 F. Willughby & J. Ray Ornithologiæ iii. 261 The great black and white Gull.
1747 G. Edwards Nat. Hist. Birds II. 100 (heading) The little Black and White Duck.
1769 E. Bancroft Ess. Nat. Hist. Guiana 154 The Black and White Butcher Bird of Guiana has a tapering bill, of a dusky brown colour.
1811 A. Wilson Amer. Ornithol. III. 23 Black and White Creeper. Certhia Maculata.
1864 J. C. Atkinson Stanton Grange 70 Ta'n't a yaffler's [nest]; it's a black and white woodpecker's.
1908 Zoologist 12 285 The Black and White Ruffed Lemur, Lemur varius, may be still worth £3 or more.
1971 J. Stidworthy Snakes of World 101 The Black-and-White Cobra (Naja melanoleuca ), also known as the black-lipped cobra and forest cobra, lives in Africa.
2004 BirdWatchCanada Winter 15/1 Other species, such as the Black-and-white Warbler, Ovenbird, and Blue-headed Vireo, are considered very uncommon.
2.
a. Designating or relating to art, or a work of art, executed in black or a dark tint on a white background.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > work of art > [adjective] > executed in specific manner
black and white1765
sunk1776
rupestrian1896
trompe l'œil1926
gessoed1955
1765 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) I. iii. 53 The picture..is not entirely black and white, but the carnations are pale, and all the shadows tinged with pure black.
1794 U. Price Ess. Picturesque vii. 133 Red properly belongs to colouring, as it cannot be expressed by a mere black and white drawing or engraving.
1828 Mirror 8 Nov. 293/1 Some large black and white drawings of the Vision of Don Roderick, by Sir James Steuart of Allanbank.
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 2 Jan. 7/2 The modern work in which black-and-white art is seen in its most perfect stage of development... Many of the best black-and-white men of the day are represented.
1895 J. Pennell Mod. Illustr. Introd. 3 The amount of black-and-white work which he [sc. Dürer] produced.
1915 T. S. Eliot Let. 3 Jan. (1988) I. 77 There were two cubist painters, a futurist novelist, a vorticist poet and his wife, a cubist black-and-white artist, another cubist lady, and a retired army officer.
1987 Indian Bookworm's Jrnl. Autumn 7/2 Some extremely worn out black and white smudgings or so-called colour illustrations which appear to be the spittings of a paan-eater?
2003 Daily Tel. 5 Nov. i. 21/2 Tight, linear, black and white drawings of the early 1850s, inspired by Van Eyck or Memling.
b. Photography, Film, and Television. Reproduced or displayed in different shades of grey, as opposed to in colour (cf. colour n.1 3b). Also: relating to or suited to such reproduction. Cf. monochrome adj. 2.
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society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > [adjective] > black and white
black and white1855
monochrome1918
society > communication > broadcasting > television > visual element > [adjective] > monochrome
monochrome1918
BW1960
black and white1973
1848 Art-union May 134/3 The picture produced upon the metallic surface is pure black and white, the polished silver representing the blacks, and the finely divided mercury the whites.]
1855 G. W. Wilson Pract. Guide Collodion Process Photogr. 37 A black and white proof may be obtained by using for the first solution [etc.].
1890 Portfolio 21 Art Chron. xviii/2 In so far as small photographic black-and-white versions can be satisfactory they are very good.
1940 R. Graves & A. Hodge Long Week-end xxv. 434 American advertising carried far more photographs than British, both coloured and black and white.
1958 Amateur Photographer 31 Dec. 914/2 A 35-mm camera, with which it is undesirable to use the very fastest black-and-white films unless forced.
1973 New Scientist 13 Sept. 638/3 The First Programme is black and white and the other two are in colour.
1992 R. M. Barsam Non-fiction Film (rev. ed.) vii. 262 This black and white film depicts the life of a painter associated with vibrant color.
2008 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 21 Sept. f3 A large, back-lighted, black-and-white photograph of a worker sweeping up a mess in an automobile supply shop.
3. Clear, definitive, and unambiguous; not admitting of compromise or doubt. Also: characterized by directly opposing, simplistic notions of good and bad, right and wrong, etc. Cf. senses B. 1b, B. 2.Sometimes as part of an extended metaphor: see quot. 1933.
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the mind > mental capacity > intelligibility > clearness, lucidity > [adjective]
sutelc897
openeOE
plaina1398
sada1400
familiar1509
facile1531
lightsome1532
well-determined1560
pervial1595
uncurious1601
articulate1603
distinct1609
unmisinterpretablea1631
dilucida1640
limpid1649
dilucidate1651
unmysterious1663
incurious1664
elucidatea1670
accessible1681
distinguished1700
dilucidated1759
unmistakable1822
black and white1838
clear-cut1843
square on1963
1838 Arkansas State Gaz. 31 Oct. 46/6 Individuals may deny a mooted point with plausibility, but plain black and white statements admit of no doubt.
1856 G. W. Thornbury Art & Nature I. 135 The idle dog gambles on tomb-stones,..robs, murders, and is eventually hung at Tyburn—a very black and white spelling-book moral.
1933 V. Brittain Test. of Youth xi. 594 A dramatic tale of Oxford women students, with black and white values quite unrelieved by half-tones.
1977 Time (Atlantic ed.) 19 Sept. 24/2 In fact, there may well be no ‘smoking gun’—no incontrovertible, black-and-white evidence of wrongdoing.
1988 AutoWeek (Nexis) 16 May 37 Engineering is not as black-and-white a profession as non-engineers think it is... The real world doesn't have any perfect, classroom mathematical solutions.
2006 L. Edwards in R. Thomas Neptune Noir 74 There were few consequences when Buffy staked vampires—they turned to dust and then disappeared; it was all very black and white. Real life, of course, isn't so black and white.
4. U.S. Of a dessert or drink: made with both vanilla- and chocolate-flavoured ingredients, esp. vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, syrup, or ice cream. Cf. sense B. 5.
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the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > confections or sweetmeats > ices > [adjective] > types or forms of
strawberry ice1846
black and white1912
double dip1936
1912 Spatula Mar. 345/1 Black and White Sundae. On a small oblong dish place 4 nabisco wafers... On one of the squares put a No. 16 cone of vanilla ice cream, on the other a No. 16 cone of chocolate ice cream.
1935 Washington Post 16 Feb. 13/2 Black and White Cream Pie... When chocolate mixture has begun to set, pour over it the souffled custard mixture.
1953 Lowell (Mass.) Sunday Sun 4 Oct. (Family Weekly Mag. section) 15/1 Chocolate nut sundaes, black and white sodas.
1987 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 18 Sept. e1 The Black and White Sundae (chocolate ice cream under marshmallow, vanilla ice cream under chocolate sauce, all of it buried under whipped cream and cherries).
2007 M. Jones Deadly Neighbors 255 Susan arrived with a couple of homemade black-and-white milk shakes... We sat on my sofa sucking thick vanilla-and-chocolate cream through thin straws.
B. n.
I. The two colours black and white. Frequently with in.
1.
a. In a drawing, painting, etc.: black or dark tint on a white background, or used alongside white colour.
ΚΠ
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 526 He draweth as well in blacke and whyte, as any man in Englande.
1665 Inventory Pictures in MSS Clerk of Penicuik (Edinb. Reg. House) 3 The picture of 2 religious old men, done on a paisseboard in blak and whyt.
1706 B. Buckeridge Ess. Eng. School in J. Savage tr. R. de Piles Art of Painting 454 A Room,..which is adorn'd with his Pictures in Black and White.
1802 A. Campbell Journey from Edinb. II. 264 One Paton..has left behind him some exquisitely finished miniature drawings in black and white.
1885 Athenæum 21 Feb. 251/1 Pictures and drawings in black and white.
1909 Dial 1 Dec. 453/2 He has made a hundred sketches in black-and-white, and two dozen or so in pastel.
1994 Air & Space Technol. Nov. 92/1 This book is a blockbuster collection of a great aviation artist's work, presenting more than 80 paintings plus sketches and drawings in black and white.
b. Black written or printed characters on white paper; writing, print. in (also †under) black and white: in writing or in print; (hence) in a clear or definitive form; on record.
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society > communication > writing > state of having been written > [adverb]
in scripturec1400
in write1483
in (also under) black and white1569
on paper1582
scriptitiously1815
society > communication > writing > written text > [noun]
rounOE
pagine?c1225
writ-rounc1275
dite1340
writing1340
paperc1390
scripturea1400
writinga1400
charactc1400
textc1400
papera1500
black and white1569
page?1606
character1609
litera scripta1660
matter1683
legend1822
screed1834
reading1836
1569 Lennox Papers in A. Lang Myst. Mary Stuart (1901) 243 She had that in black and white that would cause Lethington to hang by the neck.
1571 J. Phillips Epytaphe Sir W. Garrat (single sheet) Thou hast nought but black and white, thy meanyng to endight.
?1589 T. Nashe Almond for Parrat sig. Fv Why, there is not a Presician in England that hath abused arte, or mistoken a metaphor but I haue his name in blacke and white.
a1656 Bp. J. Hall Shaking of Olive-tree (1660) ii. 136 We stay not till we have gotten it under black and white.
1712 R. Steele Spectator No. 286. ⁋3 Give us in Black and White your Opinion in the Matter.
1792 J. Richardson Fugitive iii. i. 33 The register can add nothing to the evidence of your face—which proclaims fifty as strongly as if it was in black and white in the parish books.
1830 J. Galt Lawrie Todd II. iv. x. 87 A confirmed black and white agreement.
1845 T. Carlyle in O. Cromwell Lett. & Speeches II. 358 In authentic black-on-white against them.
1866 W. Collins Armadale iv. xv The whole story of her life, in black and white.
1920 Amer. Woman Aug. 14/2 To see those words so cruelly set in black and white staring at her with frightful truth, harrowed the very soul of her.
1950 F. Klees Pennsylvania Dutch 341 The taufschein was..proof in black and white that..he had been properly baptized.
1997 A. Sivanandan When Memory Dies i. vi. 69 He certainly could not deny his past activities. They were all down in black and white.
c. Photography, Film, and Television. The state or quality of being in different shades of grey rather than in colour; (also) black and white reproduction or display. Cf. monochrome n. 2b.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > filming > special techniques > [noun] > reproduction in black and white
black and white1839
monochrome1902
mono1977
1839 Foreign Monthly Rev. June 186 This, he continued, was what M. Daguerre had partially succeeded in doing, not in colours such as Nature gives, but in black and white.
1878 W. de W. Abney Treat. Photogr. i. 4 Various bodies, such as lace and ferns, were laid on this paper, and a reversed facsimile of them in black and white was produced.
1937 Amer. Home Apr. 59/2 (advt.) See sample movies in black-and-white and in full-color Kodachrome at your dealer's today.
1987 D. Clandfield Canad. Film iv. 70 Brault contrasted a chilling desaturated colour for the prison sequences with black and white for the rest.
2003 New Yorker 17 Nov. 36/1 ‘The Jewish Journey: Frédéric Brenner's Photographic Odyssey’ presents their portraits in crisply documentarian black-and-white.
2. Directly opposing, simplistic notions of good and bad, right and wrong, etc.
ΚΠ
1899 J. Dawson Makers of Mod. Prose 100 It leads him to see all things in black and white, to catalogue the characters of men and women in cast-iron categories.
1907 E. K. Bates Seen & Unseen App. 311 It is so difficult to explain everything in black and white when there are so many shades of grey, so many degrees and amounts to be considered.
1945 E. P. Earnest Foreword to Lit. vii. 184 Well-drawn characters are seldom all wise or complete fools, monsters or saints. As in all good writing, the playwright does not draw people in terms of black and white.
1980 N. J. Lacy Craft Chrétien de Troyes 6 This is not to suggest..that Chrétien sees everything in black and white, that he has a simplistic conception of his characters and their world.
2000 Boston Herald (Nexis) 25 Sept. (Arts & Life section) 39 Teenagers tend to think in black and white when it comes to romance... ‘They can rationalize cheating on a test better than cheating on a love interest.’
II. absol. uses of the adjective.
3. An animal having black and white colouring.
ΚΠ
1819 J. Keats Let. 3 Jan. (1958) II. 29 Mrs. Dilke has two cats... The Mother is a tabby and the daughter a black and white.
1833 New Sporting Mag. Sept. 337/1 The black and whites are generally considered the more hardy dogs—the lemons, the top finders.
1875 Jrnl. Hort., Cottage Gardener, & Country Gentleman 23 Mar. 216/1 Mr. Irving won both first and third with Black-and-whites, the first taking the top cup also, this being a little short of marking, but a really grand Rabbit.
1916 Genetics 1 305 To produce black-and-whites which breed true a somewhat similar procedure is followed.
1992 1001 Images of Dogs viii. 95 The Black and White should be the same weight and size as the Standard but with a bi-colored coat.
2001 V. Porter Brit. Cattle 15 By the late 1940s the black-and-whites (Friesians, Holsteins or Holstein-Friesians..) had become Britain's dominant dairy breed.
4. A black and white print, painting, photograph, etc.
ΚΠ
1830 S. F. Gray & A. L. Porter Chem. of Arts II. 753 The pieces must be printed immediately after padding, as in black and whites.
1882 Critic (N.Y.) 16 Dec. 346/1 He shows black-and-whites and water-colors which are fine, bold, spirited, electric.
1960 Pop. Sci. Dec. 148/2 If you have the negatives of your black-and-whites, you can work directly from these.
1969 B. H. Friedman in J. Pollock: Interviews, Articles, & Reviews (1999) 36 In that painting, as in the 1951 black-and-whites, there's an acceptance of empty space.
2006 N.Y. Mag. 13 Mar. 106/1 Track down the black-and-whites of your parents on their honeymoon.
5. U.S.
a. Any of various desserts and drinks made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce, syrup, or ice cream.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > confections or sweetmeats > ices > [noun] > ice-cream > ice-cream dishes
plombière1818
Alaska1882
parfait1884
taster1891
sundae1892
pêche Melba1902
black and white1903
peach Melba1906
banana split1920
split1920
cassata1927
spumoni1929
Knickerbocker Glory1936
Melba1953
coupe1969
semifreddo1973
affogato1992
1903 A. Langdon Just for Two 173 Black and White. Layers of ice cream with chocolate sauce poured over.
1931 B. Lillard Pract. Druggist 56/1 I walk up to that soda bar and order a short ‘coke’, or a ‘black and white’.
1978 Washington Post 7 Dec. (Maryland Weekly section)17/5 A black and white, described on the menu as ‘chocolate ice cream, marshmallow, vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, almonds, whipped cream and a cherry’.
1985 N.Y. Times 7 Aug. (Style section) 8/2 We used that combination [sc. milk, seltzer, and chocolate syrup] for black and whites—chocolate sodas with vanilla ice cream.
2010 M. Johnson Scarlett Fever 175 Scarlett ordered two large black and whites... It took a major effort to get these shakes up the straw.
b. A large round biscuit with a soft, cakelike texture, having white (usually vanilla-flavoured) icing on one half and chocolate icing on the other. Also more fully black and white cookie.With attributive usage cf. also senses A. 1a, A. 4.
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the world > food and drink > food > dishes and prepared food > biscuit > [noun] > other biscuits
dorcake14..
cracknelc1440
hard breada1500
crackling1598
Naples biscuit1650
gingerbread man1686
chocolate biscuit1702
biscotin1723
sponge biscuit1736
maple biscuita1753
butter biscuit1758
nut1775
Oliver biscuit1786
funeral biscuit1790
rock biscuit?1790
ratafia1801
finger biscuit1812
Savoy drop1816
lady's finger1818
snap1819
Abernethy1830
pretzel1831
wine-biscuit1834
gingersnap1838
captain's biscuit1843
lebkuchen1847
simnel1854
sugar cookie1854
peppernut1862
McClellan pie1863
Savoy ring1866
Brown George1867
beaten biscuit1876
digestive1876
Osborne1876
Bath Oliver1878
marie1878
boer biscuit1882
charcoal biscuit1885
biscotti1886
fairing1888
snickerdoodle1889
pfeffernuss1891
zwieback1894
Nice1895
Garibaldi biscuit1896
Oswegoc1900
squashed fly1900
amaretto1905
boerebeskuit1905
Romary1905
petit beurre1906
Oswego biscuit1907
soetkoekie1910
Oreo1912
custard cream1916
Anzac1923
sweet biscuit1929
langue de chat1931
Bourbon biscuit1932
Afghan1934
flapjack1935
Florentine1936
chocolate chip cookie1938
choc chip cookie1940
Toll House cookie1940
tuile1943
pizzelle1949
black and white1967
Romany Cream1970
papri1978
1967 Boston Globe 6 Sept. 17/1 Half-and-Half Cookies... Frost undersides of cooled cookies with your favorite icings, making them look like black and whites, half chocolate and half white.
1979 Washington Post 29 Nov. e23/1 Does anyone have a recipe for ‘Black and White’ cookies similar to those sold in the bakery department of a local kosher supermarket?
1982 Miami Herald (Nexis) 1 July (Neighbors section) 12 You'll have to make the agonizing choice between black-and-whites, brownies, cupcakes and chocolate-chip cookies.
1992 M. O'Neill N.Y. Cookbk. 441/2 Black and white cookies are found in almost every deli in New York.
2007 H. Winkler & L. Oliver Who ordered this Baby? 102 I had to decide whether to break the cookie in half so that one side was all chocolate and the other was all vanilla... This is a decision I go through every time I get a black-and-white.
6. U.S. slang. A (marked) police car.With reference to the distinctive black-and-white livery once commonly used on police cars in the United States.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > powered vehicle > motor car > [noun] > police car
police cruiser1858
police car1881
prowl car1922
cruiser1929
unit1929
patrol car1931
scout car1933
squad car1938
Z-car1961
black and white1965
panda1966
squad1974
1965 Chronol. in Rep. & Sel. Documents Governor's Comm. on Los Angeles Riots II. 43 If them black-and-whites (police cars) come in here tonight—they'd wish they hadn't—we are ready.
1970 D. Ponicsan Last Detail viii. 153 Officer Breslin and I took cover behind our, uh, black and white, and ordered the suspects to, uh, halt.
1988 J. Ellroy Big Nowhere i. 5 Danny drove up it in his civilian car, slowing when he saw a barrier of sawhorses with red blinkers, three black-and-whites parked behind it.
1992 Harper's Mag. July 30/2 Couple of black-and-whites zip up. Cops jump out.
2006 S. Turow Limitations 163 It's shift change, and the black-and-whites are double-parked in the small lot behind the station.
Compounds
C1.
black-and-white colobus n. (in full black-and-white colobus monkey) any of several black and white monkeys of the African genus Colobus (family Cercopithecidae (or Colobidae)), which are long-haired and long-tailed, and lack thumbs.
ΚΠ
1889 J. C. Willoughby E. Afr. & its Big Game 175 The beautiful black and white Colobus monkeys.
1920 R. C. F. MAugham Republic of Liberia viii. 190 On the western borders of the Liberian Republic there is a black and white Colobus Monkey, distinguished by the same beautiful, long, silky coat.
1980 R. Rhodes Last Safari ii. viii. 141 Outside the camp a colony of black-and-white colobus monkeys had set up a racket growling in the canopy.
2003 Wildlife Conservation Oct. 45/3 The forest is home to the largest remaining population of Sharpe's black-and-white colobus.
C2.
black-and-white minstrel n. see minstrel n. 3a.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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adj.n.1395