COAL-BLACK

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does coal-black mean? 

• COAL-BLACK (adjective)
  The adjective COAL-BLACK has 1 sense:

1. of the blackest black; similar to the color of jet or coal

  Familiarity information: COAL-BLACK used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COAL-BLACK (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of the blackest black; similar to the color of jet or coal

Synonyms:

coal-black; jet; jet-black; pitchy; sooty

Similar:

achromatic; neutral (having no hue)

 Context examples 

That coal-black beard was in singular contrast to the pallor of his face, and his eyes were as bright as if he had a fever.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A few minutes later we were joined by a short, stout man whose olive face and coal-black hair proclaimed his Southern origin, though his speech was that of an educated Englishman.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could see from the flash of our lamps, as the rays fell on them, that the horses were coal-black and splendid animals.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It chanced, however, that as we turned into the Pavilion Grounds, we met a magnificent team of four coal-black horses, driven by a rough-looking, middle-aged fellow in an old weather-stained cape.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As the eyes became more used to the obscurity one learned that there were different degrees of darkness among the trees—that some were dimly visible, while between and among them there were coal-black shadowed patches, like the mouths of caves, from which I shrank in horror as I passed.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was perched by his side, looking very smart in a flowered bonnet and grey travelling-dress, while in front of them the four splendid coal-black horses, with a flickering touch of gold upon their powerful, well-curved quarters, were pawing the dust in their eagerness to be off.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)