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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

black and white en · ADJ

Pronunciation

Etymology

The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.

Meanings

  1. (qualifier:literal; strictly; literal; strictly) Of art, a photograph or photography, using dots or lines that are either black or white (with no other values involved).
    • Using Adobe Photoshop, he opened the images that were grayscale and converted them to be black and white.
  2. (broadly, qualifier:literal) Of art, a photograph or photography, using shades of grey rather than shades of any other color.
    • Their photos from that era are all black and white.
  3. Of a television or monitor, displaying images in shades of grey rather than color.
    • The second segment is one of the most audacious and ambitious in “Treehouse Of Horror” history, and not just because it’s in black and white. It’s a parody of King Kong that works spectacularly well because Homer isn’t just ape-like and simian on the inside: he’s ape-like and simian on the outside as well, so it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine the rage-filled man-child as a giant ape with serious anger-control issues. 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
  4. Classifying people, objects or concepts as two polar opposites, especially "right" and "wrong"; dichotomous and inflexible.
    • “It's complicated. Not everything is black-and-white, Ginny. Sometimes, it's just gray.” The disillusionment in Ginny's eyes hurt bone-deep. She was a black-and-white kind of person. Actions were either right or wrong. No room for in-betweens. 2011, Sandra Orchard, Deep Cover, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 144:
    • I wish she weren't always so black and white about every single thing.
    • You could say that inflexible thinking is black-and-white thinking and flexible thinking is rainbow thinking. Black-and-white thinkers have difficulty being flexible in their mind and seeing different possibilities and perspectives. 2011, Aileen Zeitz Collucci, Big Picture Thinking: Using Central Coherence Theory to Support Social Skills : a Book for Students, AAPC Publishing, →ISBN, page 82:
    • The pseudo-community of enemies in The Day the Earth Stood Still consists of politicians, the military, and businessmen, whereas the pseudo-community of friends, the element that complements the enemies and reinforces the black-and-white morality of paranoia (Cameron, "Revisited" 56), is composed of scientists, women, and children. 1999, Cynthia Hendershot, Paranoia, the Bomb, and 1950s Science Fiction Films, Popular Press, →ISBN, page 28:
    • 2008, Linus Torvalds, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140805134937/http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/706950 Re: [stable] Linux 2.6.25.10], LKML; quoted in: Bezpieczeństwo, Jacek Popławski, pl.comp.os.advocacy, Usenet Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't stand.
  5. Easily divided into diametrically opposing categories.
    • Near-synonym: night-and-day

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
more black and white Degree=Cmp lexicographic
black-and-white alternative lexicographic
most black and white Degree=Sup lexicographic

Coordinates

color · greyscale · color · colour · monochrome · colour · grayscale · color · colour

Synonyms

grayscale · greyscale · night-and-day · monochrome

Translations (2)

fi mustavalkoinen (clear cut) · pl czarno na białym (clear cut)

black and white en · NOUN

Pronunciation

Etymology

The police car sense reflects a traditional livery scheme for such cars.

Meanings

  1. (US, slang) A police patrol car.
    • [T]he news bunny ran up to him, saying, "Officer, did you have trouble catching up with Batman? Was it an exciting chase?" The surfer cop struck a semi-heroic pose for the camera and said, "Weak sauce." Then he quickly walked Batman to the black-and-white, where he was put into the backseat. 2006, Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station […], New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 237:
  2. (US, broadly, slang) The police, a police officer or the clothing they wear.
    • Them punk motherfuckers in black and white ain't the only motherfuckers I gots to fight. 1992, “A Nigga Witta Gun”, in The Chronic, performed by Dr. Dre, Death Row Records:
  3. A type of giant cookie (about eight inches in diameter) with icing on the top side: half white, half dark chocolate.
  4. A kind of ice cream soda with chocolate and vanilla flavors.
  5. (figuratively) Day and night (two very different things).

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
black-and-white alternative lexicographic
black and whites Number=Plur lexicographic

Relateds

Black Maria

Synonyms

half-moon · police vehicle

Translations (5)

pl radiowóz (slang: police patrol car) · pl wielkie ciastko (cookie) · de Amerikaner (cookie) · pl suka (slang: police patrol car) · fi piiska (slang: police patrol car)