Bible-black

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having the colour of a Bible bound in black. literary, not-comparable

    "It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and- rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea."

Example

More examples

"It is Spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and- rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea."

Etymology

From the fact that personal Bibles were formerly often bound in a black cover.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.