▪ I. bleck, n. Obs. exc. dial.
Also blek(e, blecke.
[The OE. blæc looks like the adj. blæc, black, used subst. If so, ME. blek(e must be unrepresented in OE., and correspond to ON. blek ink (Sw. bläck, Da. blæk ink), OTeut. type *blakjo(m, f. *blak- black.]
1. Black fluid substance; spec. ink (obs.); a preparation used by curriers and shoemakers for blacking leather (also called bletch, blatch, bleach) (obs.); black grease round an axle or other revolving part. north. dial.
| [c 970 K. Eadgar Canons (Anc. Laws II. 244) We lærað þæt hi..habban blæc and bocfell to heora ᵹerædnessum. a 1000 ælfric Gloss. Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 164 Incaustum vel atramentum, blæc.] c 1440 Promp. Parv. 39 Bleke [1499 blecke], atramentum. 1483 Cath. Angl. 34 Blek, attramen, attramentum. c 1505 Dunbar ‘This Nycht in my Sleip’ vii, ‘Fy,’ quod the Feynd, ‘thou [sowttar] sairis of blek, Go clenge the clene, and cum to me.’ 1570 Levins Manip. 47 Blecke, bleche, atramentum. 1855 Whitby Gloss., Bleck, the dirty-looking oil or grease at the axle of a cart-wheel. 1876 in Mid. Yorksh. Gloss. 1877 in Holderness Gloss., etc. |
2. Soot or smut, a particle of soot. (Still Sc.)
| c 1590 A. Hume Ep. G. Moncrief, The Censor is impropre to correck, That in himself has ony kinde of bleck. |
3. a. A blackamoor. b. A blackguard. mod.Sc.
4. Comb., as † bleck-fat (= vat), blek-pot, a vessel for holding ‘bleck.’
| 1468 Medulla Gram. in Cath. Angl. 34 Atramentarium, an ynkhorne or a blek pot. 1483 Cath. Angl. 34 Blek potte, attramentorium. 1562 Richmond. Wills (1853) 156 In a litill house, stocks of a bedde and bleckfatts. |
▪ II. bleck, v. Obs. exc. dial.
Also 5 blekkyn, 5–6 blek. pa. tense 6 Sc. blekkit.
[App. f. blek bleck n.: but cf. the parallel bletch v., of which this may be the northern form, going back to an OE. *blęccan:—OTeut. *blakjan, f. *blako- black.]
1. trans. To make black; esp. to blacken with ink, soot, tar, or the like. Still in north. dial.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xxx. 30 My skin is bleckid up on me. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 39 Blekkyn wythe bleke [1499 blackyn with blecke], atramento. 1570 Levins Manip. 47 To blecke, bletch, nigrare. 1646 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 440 It was his comfort on his death-bed that he never blecked nor disfigured the well-favoured face of the Kirk of Scotland. Mod. Sc. How hae ye blekkit yeir face? |
2. To enter or inscribe with ink; to write.
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. 311 Thus told I youre tax, thus ar my bokys blekyt. c 1570 Leg. Bp. St. Andrews in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 340 Not all the paper of this towne, And blek[k]it baith vnder and abone, May had the half that he hes done. |
3. fig. To blacken morally, to make or declare guilty; to defile. (Still dial.)
| c 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 211 Boþe partis ben bleckid with þis synne. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 715 Quhither or nocht he wes thairof to blek. 1552 Abp. Hamilton Catech. (1884) 139 Syn..that fylis and blekkis our saulis. |
¶ 4. Here perhaps representing ON. blekkja ‘to impose upon, deceive,’ = OE. blęncan to blench.
| 1573 Sege Edinb. Cast. in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 307 Sen ye are wairned, I wald not ye were blekkit. |