black-a-vised

American  

[blak-uh-vahyst, -vahyzd] / ˈblæk əˌvaɪst, -ˌvaɪzd /

Also black-a-viced

adjective

1. having a dark complexion.

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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; visage ) + -ed ³

Example Sentences

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 Project Gutenberg

Tall, lean, black-a-vised, muscular, Robert Graves looks younger than his 38 years.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Come, sir," said I at length, in a great voice, for I was both wrathful at this fetch, and feared something behind it, "who is this black-a-vised tall man in brave apparel, that you shave each morning?"

From Project Gutenberg

"So the cruellest and fiercest of all, the stark, black-a-vised man whom they called Mardrochat, the same that stopped us by the ford when first we fled from Balmaghie——" "O cursed Mardrochat," I cried, striking my hands together, "wait till I come to a settlement with you!"

From Project Gutenberg

But, as I was sayin’, my mither——” On the death of the father there remained golden-haired Kirstie, who took service with her distant kinsfolk, the Rutherfords, and black-a-vised Gilbert, twenty years older, who farmed the Cauldstaneslap, married, and begot four sons between 1773 and 1784, and a daughter, like a postscript, in ’97, the year of Camperdown and Cape St. Vincent.

From Project Gutenberg