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
The French skipper too was at the wheel: a dapper little personage, black-a-vised, with fierce moustachios and eye-tufts.
From The Gentleman A Romance of the Sea by Ollivant, Alfred
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 The Junior Classics — Volume 8 Animal and Nature Stories by Patten, William
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 Spare Hours by Brown, John
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 Oxenham, John
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.
