Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
black up en · VERB
Meanings
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(intransitive, literally, transitive) To become or make (something) black or darker.
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(intransitive, transitive) To put on or wear blackface makeup.
Cantor starts blacking up, right then and there, painting his face with a burnt piece of cork.
2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 191:
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(transitive) To make something (e.g. a film, cast, story line, etc.) more racially black in character; blackenize.
Forms