Dictionary

bible-black en · ADJ

Etymology

From the fact that personal Bibles were formerly often bound in a black cover.

Meanings

1. (literary, not-comparable) Having the colour of a Bible bound in black.
   • The sky was Bible black in Lyon / When I met the Magdalene / She was paralysed in a streetlight / She refused to give her name 1985, Marillion, “Bitter Suite”, in Misplaced Childhood:
   • Once used to describe the intense black of a starless night in Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood, Bible Black is an inky violet shade that adds richness and depth to any feature, inside or out. a. 2024, “Bible Black”, in Farrow & Ball, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2024:
   • It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and- rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea. 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] , New York: New Directions:
   • A little further along the coast, watched by lines of Bible-black cormorants, a monument was unveiled in 2022 commemorating Chile's role in returning Shackleton and his men to Punta Arenas: next to a section of hull from the good ship Yelcho is a statue of its captain, Luis Pardo, pointing southwards out to sea. 2023 May 28, Rick Jordan, “I went to the only place on Earth where every nation gets along”, in Chris Evans, editor, The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Sep 2023:

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