A vivid British simile meaning completely, utterly black — as dark as the famous iron knocker on the gate of Newgate Prison, London's most notorious jail.
A vivid British simile meaning completely, utterly black — as dark as the famous iron knocker on the gate of Newgate Prison, London's most notorious jail. The phrase dates back centuries and trades on Newgate's grim reputation: everything associated with it was dark, forbidding, and heavy. Used to describe anything from overcast skies to scorched toast to a blackened cooking pot, it has the dour wit characteristic of working-class London speech, and still pops up in older British writing and regional dialogue.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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(UK, slang, obsolete) A lock of hair worn twisted back toward the ear.
(simile, slang) Utterly black; pitch-black.
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.
(US, slang, offensive, ethnic slur) A nightstick or a similar weapon.
He came back from fixing the boiler with his hands and face black as Newgate's knocker, grinning like it was all a great joke.
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(UK, simile) Completely black in colour.
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