black as a dog's guts
Black as a dog's guts is a vivid Australian and British simile meaning completely or utterly black — pitch dark, with absolutely no light or colour.
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Black as a dog's guts is a vivid Australian and British simile meaning completely or utterly black — pitch dark, with absolutely no light or colour. The comparison uses the darkness of animal innards as an intensifier, combining the bluntness of anatomical reference with the strong visual impact of absolute blackness. It sits in the tradition of colourful comparative idioms used in informal speech. The register is casual, slightly rough, and very direct — no hedging or softening involved.
By the time they got off the mountain it was black as a dog's guts and they couldn't see a foot in front of them.
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(simile, slang) Utterly black; pitch-black.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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- black as Newgate's knocker63%
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