black out

1. Obliterate with black, as in crossing out words on a page or print on a screen. For example, They have blacked out all the obscene words in the subtitles to make this movie suitable for youngsters . This usage may be derived from an earlier meaning, “to stain or defame,” which dates from the 15th century (and probably alludes to “blackening” a person's reputation). [Mid-1800s]

2. Extinguish all lights. For example, The whole town was asleep, as blacked out as London during the war . In the early 1900s this expression alluded to the lights in a theater, but from about 1940 on it meant darkening an entire city to hide it from enemy bombers.

3. Lose consciousness, faint; also, experience a temporary loss of memory. For example, I couldn't remember a single note of the music; I blacked out completely , or The accused man claims he blacked out after his first drink . This usage is thought to have originated with pilots, who sometimes fainted briefly when pulling out of a power dive. It soon was transferred to other losses of consciousness or memory. [c. 1940]

Example Sentences

Only this time, as we hear the names of those children killed in the Holocaust, their images, too, are blacked out, Anne’s among them.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"You would get there at about half past eight at night. The place was blacked out, the music was brilliant," he said.

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In another incident in 1989, he blacked out in a drug haze and nearly strangled her, landing him an attempted murder charge.

Read more on Salon

But entire pages of the department’s “use of force” report are blacked out, leaving Vanessa and members of the Civilian Oversight Commission wondering what details are being kept secret.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

He told the operator he had been "trying to muster up the courage to phone" and that he had "totally blacked out through the thing".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• cross out 
• cut off 
• darken 
• erase 
• extinguish 
• faint 
• pass out