black-a-vised
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of black-a-vised
1750–60; Scots blackaviced, equivalent to black a vice (one) black of face ( black + a 3 + obsolete vice < Middle French vis; see visage) + -ed 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tall, lean, black-a-vised, muscular, Robert Graves looks younger than his 38 years.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a carrier's cart ready to start, and a keen thin, impatient, black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse's head, looking about angrily for something.
From Famous Stories Every Child Should Know by Hamilton Wright Mabie
There was a carrier’s cart ready to start, and a keen, thin, impatient, black-a-vised little man, his hand at his gray horse’s head looking about angrily for something.
From Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 by Charles Herbert Sylvester
The boys called it "The Haunted House," and peopled it with ghosts; gorgeous bucks of the Regency, languishing beauties such as Lawrence painted, fiery politicians, duellists, mysterious black-a-vised foreigners.
From The Hill A Romance of Friendship by Horace Annesley Vachell
A night or two later, to his amazement, Macro came out of his own cabin more black-a-vised than he had ever seen him, and asked abruptly, "Where's that cross?"
From Maid of the Mist by John Oxenham
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
