BLACK FLAG

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does black flag mean? 

• BLACK FLAG (noun)
  The noun BLACK FLAG has 1 sense:

1. a flag usually bearing a white skull and crossbones on a black background; indicates a pirate ship

  Familiarity information: BLACK FLAG used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BLACK FLAG (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A flag usually bearing a white skull and crossbones on a black background; indicates a pirate ship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

black flag; blackjack; Jolly Roger; pirate flag

Hypernyms ("black flag" is a kind of...):

flag (emblem usually consisting of a rectangular piece of cloth of distinctive design)

Meronyms (parts of "black flag"):

skull and crossbones (emblem warning of danger or death)

 Context examples 

And again dodging the boom, I ran to the colour lines, handed down their cursed black flag, and chucked it overboard.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

This was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things, that he had launched Mr. Peggotty's house on a piratical expedition, with a black flag at the masthead, bearing the inscription Tidd's Practice, under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little Em'ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The HISPANIOLA still lay where she had anchored; but, sure enough, there was the Jolly Roger—the black flag of piracy—flying from her peak.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)