(as) black as night
Completely black; totally without light or color. The basement gives me the creeps, it's as black as night down there! A: "I can't believe that Grandma's hair used to be black as night." B: "Well, sure—you've only ever known her with gray hair." My hands were black as night after working on that filthy engine all day.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
black as night
Also, black as coal or pitch . Totally black; also, very dark. For example, The well was black as night, or She had eyes that were black as coal. These similes have survived while others-black as ink, a raven, thunder, hell, the devil, my hat, the minister's coat, the ace of spades-are seldom if ever heard today. Of the current objects of comparison, pitch may be the oldest, so used in Homer's Iliad (c. 850 b.c.), and coal is mentioned in a Saxon manuscript from a.d. 1000. John Milton used black as night in Paradise Lost (1667).
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.