| blacking | (noun) a substance used to produce a shiny protective surface on footwear | Synonyms: shoe polish |
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| blackjack | (noun) a gambling game using cards; the object is to hold cards having a higher count than those dealt to the banker up to but not exceeding 21 | Synonyms: twenty-one, vingt-et-un |
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| (noun) a piece of metal covered by leather with a flexible handle; used for hitting people | Synonyms: cosh, sap |
| (noun) a flag usually bearing a white skull and crossbones on a black background; indicates a pirate ship | Synonyms: black flag, Jolly Roger, pirate flag |
| (noun) a common scrubby deciduous tree of central and southeastern United States having dark bark and broad three-lobed (club-shaped) leaves; tends to form dense thickets | Synonyms: blackjack oak, jack oak, Quercus marilandica |
| blackleg | (noun) someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike | Synonyms: rat, scab, strikebreaker |
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| blacklist | (noun) a list of people who are out of favor | Synonyms: black book, shitlist |
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| blackmail | (noun) extortion of money by threats to divulge discrediting information | - |
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| blackmailer | (noun) a criminal who extorts money from someone by threatening to expose embarrassing information about them | Synonyms: extortioner, extortionist |
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| blackness | (noun) the quality or state of the achromatic color of least lightness (bearing the least resemblance to white) | Synonyms: black, inkiness |
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| (noun) total absence of light | Synonyms: black, lightlessness, pitch blackness, total darkness |
| blackout | (noun) a momentary loss of consciousness | - |
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| (noun) partial or total loss of memory | Synonyms: amnesia, memory loss |
| (noun) the failure of electric power for a general region | - |
| (noun) darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft) | Synonyms: brownout, dimout |
| (noun) a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting | - |
| blackpoll | (noun) North American warbler having a black-and-white head | Synonyms: Dendroica striate |
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| blackseed | (noun) grass native to West Indies but common in southern United States having tufted wiry stems often infested with a dark fungus | Synonyms: carpet grass, smut grass, Sporobolus poiretii |
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| blacksmith | (noun) a smith who forges and shapes iron with a hammer and anvil | - |
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| blacksnake | (noun) blackish racer of the eastern United States that grows to six feet | Synonyms: black racer, Coluber constrictor |
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| (noun) large harmless shiny black North American snake | Synonyms: black rat snake, Elaphe obsoleta, mountain blacksnake, pilot blacksnake |
| blacktail | (noun) mule deer of western Rocky Mountains | Synonyms: black-tailed deer, blacktail deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus |
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| blackthorn | (noun) erect and almost thornless American hawthorn with somewhat pear-shaped berries | Synonyms: Crataegus calpodendron, Crataegus tomentosa, pear haw, pear hawthorn |
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| (noun) a thorny Eurasian bush with plumlike fruits | Synonyms: Prunus spinosa, sloe |
| blacktop | (noun) a black bituminous material used for paving roads or other areas; usually spread over crushed rock | Synonyms: blacktopping |
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| blacktopping | (noun) a black bituminous material used for paving roads or other areas; usually spread over crushed rock | Synonyms: blacktop |
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| blackwash | (noun) a wash that colors a surface black | - |
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| (noun) a mixture of calomel and limewater that is used on syphilitic sores | Synonyms: black lotion |
| (noun) an attack intended to ruin someone's reputation | Synonyms: assassination, character assassination |
| blackwater | (noun) any of several human or animal diseases characterized by dark urine resulting from rapid breakdown of red blood cells | - |
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| blackwood | (noun) any of several hardwood trees yielding very dark-colored wood | Synonyms: blackwood tree |
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| (noun) very dark wood of any of several blackwood trees | - |
| bladderwrack | (noun) a common rockweed used in preparing kelp and as manure | Synonyms: black rockweed, bladder fucus, Fucus vesiculosus, tang |
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| (noun) similar to and found with black rockweed | Synonyms: Ascophyllum nodosum |
| blowback | (noun) Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gases created by the ignition of the propellant charge. | - |
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| (noun) misinformation resulting from the recirculation into the source country of disinformation previously planted abroad by that country's intelligence service | - |
| (noun) the backward escape of gases and unburned gunpowder after a gun is fired | Synonyms: backfire |
| bluejacket | (noun) a serviceman in the navy | Synonyms: navy man, sailor, sailor boy |
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| bootblack | (noun) a person who polishes shoes and boots | Synonyms: shoeblack |
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| bootjack | (noun) has V-shaped notch for pulling off boots | - |
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| bracken | (noun) large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan | Synonyms: brake, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum |
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| (noun) fern of southeastern Asia; not hardy in cold temperate regions | Synonyms: Pteridium esculentum |
| bracket | (noun) a support projecting from a wall (as to hold a shelf) | Synonyms: wall bracket |
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| (noun) either of two punctuation marks ([ or ]) used to enclose textual material | Synonyms: square bracket |
| (noun) either of two punctuation marks (`<' or `>') used in computer programming and sometimes used to enclose textual material | Synonyms: angle bracket |
| (noun) a category falling within certain defined limits | - |
| brackishness | (noun) the quality of being salty, as the saltiness of water | - |
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| bushwhacker | (noun) a disparaging term for an unsophisticated person | Synonyms: hillbilly |
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| (noun) a Confederate guerrilla during the American Civil War | - |
| buyback | (noun) the act of purchasing back something previously sold | Synonyms: redemption, repurchase |
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| cackle | (noun) a loud laugh suggestive of a hen's cackle | - |
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| (noun) noisy talk | Synonyms: chatter, yack, yak, yakety-yak |
| (noun) the sound made by a hen after laying an egg | - |
| cackler | (noun) a hen that has just laid an egg and emits a shrill squawk | - |
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| (noun) any of various insectivorous Old World birds with a loud incessant song; in some classifications considered members of the family Muscicapidae | Synonyms: babbler |
| caipiblack | (noun) a variation of the Caipirinha made with black vodka instead of cachaça. | - |
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| callback | (noun) a request by the manufacturer of a defective product to return the product (as for replacement or repair) | Synonyms: recall |
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| calpack | (noun) a high-crowned black cap (usually made of felt or sheepskin) worn by men in Turkey and Iran and the Caucasus | Synonyms: calpac, kalpac |
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| canvasback | (noun) North American wild duck valued for sport and food | Synonyms: Aythya valisineria, canvasback duck |
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| carack | (noun) a large galleon sailed in the Mediterranean as a merchantman | Synonyms: carrack |
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| carjacking | (noun) the violent theft of an occupied car | - |
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| carrack | (noun) a large galleon sailed in the Mediterranean as a merchantman | Synonyms: carack |
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| cheapjack | (noun) a peddler of inferior goods | - |
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| chimneystack | (noun) the part of the chimney that is above the roof; usually has several flues | - |
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| clack | (noun) a simple valve with a hinge on one side; allows fluid to flow in only one direction | Synonyms: clack valve, clapper valve |
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| (noun) a sharp abrupt noise as if two objects hit together; may be repeated | Synonyms: clap |
| clawback | (noun) finding a way to take money back from people that they were given in another way | - |
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| coatrack | (noun) a rack with hooks for temporarily holding coats and hats | Synonyms: coat rack, hatrack |
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| comeback | (noun) return by a celebrity to some previously successful activity | - |
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| (noun) a quick reply to a question or remark (especially a witty or critical one) | Synonyms: counter, rejoinder, replication, retort, return, riposte |
| cornerback | (noun) a defensive football player stationed outside the linebackers | - |
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| counterattack | (noun) an attack by a defending force against an attacking enemy force in order to regain lost ground or cut off enemy advance units etc. | Synonyms: countermove |
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| (noun) (chess) an attack that is intended to counter the opponent's advantage in another part of the board | Synonyms: counterplay |
| coxsackievirus | (noun) enterovirus causing a disease resembling poliomyelitis but without paralysis | Synonyms: Coxsackie virus |
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| crack | (noun) the act of cracking something | Synonyms: cracking, fracture |
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| (noun) a usually brief attempt | Synonyms: fling, go, offer, pass, whirl |
| (noun) a narrow opening | Synonyms: gap |
| (noun) a purified and potent form of cocaine that is smoked rather than snorted; highly addictive | Synonyms: crack cocaine, tornado |
| (noun) a blemish resulting from a break without complete separation of the parts | - |
| (noun) witty remark | Synonyms: quip, sally, wisecrack |
| (noun) a sudden sharp noise | Synonyms: cracking, snap |
| (noun) a long narrow cleft | Synonyms: cleft, crevice, fissure, scissure |
| (noun) a long narrow depression in a surface | Synonyms: chap, cranny, crevice, fissure |
| (noun) a chance to do something | Synonyms: shot |
| crackdown | (noun) severely repressive actions | - |
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| cracker | (noun) a party favor consisting of a paper roll (usually containing candy or a small favor) that pops when pulled at both ends | Synonyms: cracker bonbon, snapper |
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| (noun) firework consisting of a small explosive charge and fuse in a heavy paper casing | Synonyms: banger, firecracker |
| (noun) a thin crisp wafer made of flour and water with or without leavening and shortening; unsweetened or semisweet | - |
| (noun) a poor White person in the southern United States | Synonyms: redneck |
| (noun) a programmer who cracks (gains unauthorized access to) computers, typically to do malicious things | - |
| crackerberry | (noun) creeping perennial herb distinguished by red berries and clustered leaf whorls at the tips of shoots; Greenland to Alaska | Synonyms: bunchberry, Cornus canadensis, dwarf cornel, pudding berry |
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| crackerjack | (noun) something excellent of its kind | Synonyms: jimdandy, jimhickey |
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| (noun) someone excellent of their kind | Synonyms: jimdandy, jimhickey |
| cracking | (noun) the act of cracking something | Synonyms: crack, fracture |
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| (noun) a sudden sharp noise | Synonyms: crack, snap |
| (noun) the process whereby heavy molecules of naphtha or petroleum are broken down into hydrocarbons of lower molecular weight (especially in the oil-refining process) | - |
| crackle | (noun) glazed china with a network of fine cracks on the surface | Synonyms: crackle china, crackleware |
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| (noun) the sharp sound of snapping noises | Synonyms: crackling, crepitation |
| crackleware | (noun) glazed china with a network of fine cracks on the surface | Synonyms: crackle, crackle china |
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| crackling | (noun) the sharp sound of snapping noises | Synonyms: crackle, crepitation |
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| (noun) the residue that remains after animal fat has been rendered | Synonyms: greaves |
| cracklings | (noun) the crisp residue left after lard has been rendered | - |
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| crackpot | (noun) a whimsically eccentric person | Synonyms: crank, fruitcake, nut, nut case, screwball |
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| cracksman | (noun) a thief who breaks open safes to steal valuable contents | Synonyms: safebreaker, safecracker |
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| crookback | (noun) a person whose back is hunched because of abnormal curvature of the upper spine | Synonyms: humpback, hunchback |
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| crossjack | (noun) the lowermost sail on a mizzenmast | Synonyms: mizzen course |
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| cutback | (noun) a reduction in quantity or rate | - |
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| diamondback | (noun) large deadly rattlesnake with diamond-shaped markings | Synonyms: Crotalus adamanteus, diamondback rattlesnake |
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| dieback | (noun) a disease of plants characterized by the gradual dying of the young shoots starting at the tips and progressing to the larger branches | - |
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| drawback | (noun) the quality of being a hindrance | - |
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| fallback | (noun) to break off a military action with an enemy | Synonyms: disengagement, pullout |
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| fatback | (noun) salt pork from the back of a hog carcass | - |
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| feedback | (noun) response to an inquiry or experiment | - |
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| (noun) the process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input in order to regulate its further output | - |
| finback | (noun) large flat-headed whalebone whale having deep furrows along the throat; of Atlantic and Pacific | Synonyms: Balaenoptera physalus, common rorqual, fin whale, finback whale |
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| firecracker | (noun) firework consisting of a small explosive charge and fuse in a heavy paper casing | Synonyms: banger, cracker |
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| flack | (noun) artillery designed to shoot upward at airplanes | Synonyms: ack-ack, ack-ack gun, antiaircraft, antiaircraft gun, flak, pom-pom |
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| (noun) intense adverse criticism | Synonyms: attack, blast, fire, flak |
| (noun) a slick spokesperson who can turn any criticism to the advantage of their employer | Synonyms: flack catcher, flak, flak catcher |
| flapjack | (noun) a flat cake of thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle | Synonyms: battercake, flannel-cake, flannel cake, flapcake, griddlecake, hot cake, hotcake, pancake |
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| flashback | (noun) a transition (in literary or theatrical works or films) to an earlier event or scene that interrupts the normal chronological development of the story | - |
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| (noun) an unexpected but vivid recurrence of a past experience (especially a recurrence of the effects of an hallucinogenic drug taken much earlier) | - |
| fracking | (noun) a well-stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid | - |
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| fullback | (noun) (American football) the position of a back on a football team, generally larger in size than halfbacks | - |
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| (noun) (football) the running back who plays the fullback position on the offensive team | - |
| gimcrack | (noun) ornamental objects of no great value | Synonyms: falderol, folderal, frill, gimcrackery, nonsense, trumpery |
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| gimcrackery | (noun) ornamental objects of no great value | Synonyms: falderol, folderal, frill, gimcrack, nonsense, trumpery |
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| grackle | (noun) long-tailed American blackbird having iridescent black plumage | Synonyms: crow blackbird |
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| (noun) glossy black Asiatic starling often taught to mimic speech | Synonyms: Gracula religiosa, hill myna, Indian grackle |
| grayback | (noun) a dowitcher with a grey back | Synonyms: greyback, Limnodromus griseus |
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| (noun) a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Southern Hemisphere | Synonyms: Calidris canutus, greyback, knot |
| greenback | (noun) a piece of paper money (especially one issued by a central bank) | Synonyms: bank bill, bank note, banker's bill, banknote, bill, Federal Reserve note, government note, note |
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| greyback | (noun) a dowitcher with a grey back | Synonyms: grayback, Limnodromus griseus |
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| (noun) a sandpiper that breeds in the Arctic and winters in the Southern Hemisphere | Synonyms: Calidris canutus, grayback, knot |
| (noun) `Johnny' was applied as a nickname for Confederate soldiers by the Federal soldiers in the American Civil War; `greyback' derived from their grey Confederate uniforms | Synonyms: Johnny, Johnny Reb, Reb, Rebel |
| gripsack | (noun) a small suitcase | - |
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| gunnysack | (noun) a bag made of burlap | Synonyms: burlap bag, gunny sack |
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| hack | (noun) a horse kept for hire | - |
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| (noun) an old or over-worked horse | Synonyms: jade, nag, plug |
| (noun) a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc. | - |
| (noun) a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money | Synonyms: cab, taxi, taxicab |
| (noun) a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil | - |
| (noun) one who works hard at boring tasks | Synonyms: drudge, hacker |
| (noun) a mediocre and disdained writer | Synonyms: hack writer, literary hack |
| (noun) a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends | Synonyms: machine politician, political hack, ward-heeler |
| hackamore | (noun) rope or canvas headgear for a horse, with a rope for leading | Synonyms: halter |
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| hackathon | (noun) an event involving a marathon coding session | - |
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| hackberry | (noun) small edible dark purple to black berry with large pits; southern United States | Synonyms: sugarberry |
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| (noun) any of various trees of the genus Celtis having inconspicuous flowers and small berrylike fruits | Synonyms: nettle tree |
| hackbut | (noun) an obsolete firearm with a long barrel | Synonyms: arquebus, hagbut, harquebus |
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| hackee | (noun) small striped semiterrestrial eastern American squirrel with cheek pouches | Synonyms: eastern chipmunk, ground squirrel, striped squirrel, Tamias striatus |
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| hacker | (noun) one who works hard at boring tasks | Synonyms: drudge, hack |
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| (noun) a programmer for whom computing is its own reward; may enjoy the challenge of breaking into other computers but does no harm | - |
| (noun) someone who plays golf poorly | - |
| hackle | (noun) long slender feather on the necks of e.g. turkeys and pheasants | - |
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| hackles | (noun) a feeling of anger and animosity | Synonyms: dander |
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| hackmatack | (noun) poplar of northeastern North America with broad heart-shaped leaves | Synonyms: balsam poplar, Populus balsamifera, tacamahac |
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| hackney | (noun) a compact breed of harness horse | - |
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| (noun) a carriage for hire | Synonyms: hackney carriage, hackney coach |
| hacksaw | (noun) saw used with one hand for cutting metal | Synonyms: hack saw, metal saw |
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| hackwork | (noun) professional work done according to formula | - |
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| (noun) (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) undistinguished literary work produced to order. | - |
| halfback | (noun) (American football) the position of a back on a football team, generally smaller in size than a fullback | - |
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| (noun) (football) the running back who plays the offensive halfback position | - |
| hardback | (noun) a book with cardboard or cloth or leather covers | Synonyms: hardcover |
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| hardtack | (noun) very hard unsalted biscuit or bread; a former ship's staple | Synonyms: pilot biscuit, pilot bread, sea biscuit, ship biscuit |
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| (noun) a mountain mahogany | - |
| hatchback | (noun) a sloping rear car door that is lifted to open | Synonyms: hatch, hatchback door, liftgate |
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| (noun) a car having a hatchback door | - |