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paint black

Idioms  
  1. Represent someone or something as evil or harmful. This idiom is most often used in a negative context, as in He's not so black as he's been painted. [Late 1500s]


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.

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As reported in Smithsonian Magazine in 2020, all it takes is to paint black one-half of one blade.

From Seattle Times May 14, 2024

Gleaming under a fresh coat of white paint, black trim and mist-green highlights, it tugs on lines that creak from the marina’s gentle surge.

From Los Angeles Times Nov. 3, 2023

I couldn’t paint black women jumping out of fields with guns.

From New York Times Mar. 1, 2020

Staff co-operated by helping the photographer create sets, allocating him rooms which he could paint black or white and leaving food inside.

From BBC Jan. 1, 2017

The next day, the background still looks off to me, so I take a medium-thick brush and paint black stick figures pulsing in the air around Liberty, thorny scars that look like barbed wire.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

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