black-outs
black-outs
Pronunciation
The IPA phonetic spelling for black-outs is: /ˈblæk.aʊts/
Sound Breakdown by Syllable
First Syllable: /blæk/
/b/: Voiced bilabial stop (the sound in "boy")
/l/: Alveolar lateral approximant (the sound in "light")
/æ/: Near-open front unrounded vowel (the short "a" in "cat")
/k/: Voiceless velar stop (the sound in "kite")
Second Syllable: /aʊts/
/aʊ/: Diphthong (the "ou" sound in "house")
/t/: Voiceless alveolar stop (the sound in "top")
/s/: Voiceless alveolar sibilant (the sound in "sun")
Word Form Variations
Singular Noun: blackout
Plural Noun: blackouts
Base Verb: black out
Present Participle/Gerund: blacking out
Past Tense/Past Participle: blacked out
Third-Person Singular Verb: blacks out
Definitions, Synonyms and Antonyms
Noun
Definition: A temporary loss of electrical power over a specific area; a transient period of unconsciousness or memory loss; or a period of censorship where information is restricted.
Synonyms: Power failure, outage, faint, swoon, suppression, brownout.
Antonyms: Illumination, consciousness, awareness, disclosure, transparency.
Verb (Phrasal Verb)
Definition: To lose consciousness suddenly; to extinguish all lights in a building or city; or to deliberately obscure or delete information from a document.
Synonyms: Pass out, faint, darken, censor, redact, obfuscate.
Antonyms: Wake up, brighten, reveal, highlight, expose.
Adjective (Compound Modifier)
Definition: Describing something used to prevent light from passing through (often hyphenated, as in "black-out curtains").
Synonyms: Light-blocking, opaque, dark, shielding.
Antonyms: Transparent, translucent, sheer, radiant.
Examples of Use
In Books and Literature
"The city fell into a series of rolling black-outs, leaving the characters to navigate the freezing winter nights by candlelight and shared warmth." (Source: The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker)
"He suffered from frequent alcohol-induced black-outs, waking up in unfamiliar places with no recollection of how he had arrived there." (Source: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins)
In Newspapers and Journalism
"The energy grid struggled under the record-breaking heatwave, leading to several localized black-outs across the metropolitan area during peak evening hours." (Source: The New York Times, July 2023)
"Government officials have enforced news black-outs regarding the ongoing negotiations to prevent public speculation from jeopardizing the hostage release." (Source: The Guardian, March 2022)
In Online Publications and Digital Media
"Tech enthusiasts reported multiple service black-outs across the platform's European servers, preventing users from logging in for nearly four hours." (Source: The Verge, October 2021)
"Medical experts discuss how certain medications can trigger physiological black-outs, emphasizing the importance of reporting dizzy spells to a doctor immediately." (Source: Healthline, February 2024)
In Entertainment and Pop Culture
In the television series Breaking Bad, characters occasionally experience emotional or physical black-outs during moments of extreme stress or trauma.
"The stadium suffered two major black-outs during the halftime show, forcing the performers to rely on battery-powered acoustics until the generators kicked in."
In General Public Discourse
"We need to invest in better home batteries so that these winter black-outs don't spoil all the food in our refrigerators every year."
"The company's social media black-outs are part of a larger marketing strategy to build hype for their upcoming product launch."
10 Famous Quotes Using Black-Outs
"Actually I don't remember being born, it must have happened during one of my black-outs." (Jim Morrison, The Lords and the New Creatures)
"New detection devices make it doubtful that a city or even a large structure can be long concealed in the most perfect of black-outs." (United States Strategic Bombing Survey, 1945)
"I think home spat me out, the black-outs and curfews like tongue against loose tooth." (Warsan Shire, Conversations about Home)
"I used office supplies to doctor them, and I did some erasure, too—black-outs with Sharpies." (SFMOMA Open Space, Slowly, with Much Expression)
"If only the black-outs didn't have to be black." (Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War I Finally Won)
"America, as combat-shocked and crippled as the rest of the bomb-shattered planet, asks 'Whadya do for black-outs?'" (Classic Science Fiction Magazine Review, July 2023)
"The recurring black-outs in the district became a metaphor for the state's inability to see its own corruption."
"He began to document the black-outs in his memory as if they were missing pages in a stolen diary."
"During the winter of the Great War, the black-outs turned the bustling metropolis into a ghost of its former self."
"She feared the black-outs not because of the dark, but because of the silence they imposed on the neighborhood."
Etymology
The etymology of black-out is relatively modern, emerging from the theater and defense sectors of the early 20th century. It is a compound word formed by combining the adjective "black" with the adverb "out."
The Theatrical Origins (First Known Use)
The term first appeared in the early 1910s within the world of British and American theater.
The Action: It referred to the sudden extinguishing of all stage lights to signal the end of a scene or an act.
The Meaning: Unlike a slow "fade to black," a black-out was an instantaneous transition that allowed for quick scenery changes or a dramatic comedic "punchline" to land in total darkness.
Expansion into Wartime Defense
The word shifted from the stage to the streets during World War I, but it became globally recognized during World War II (specifically around 1939).
The Action: Governments ordered the darkening of entire cities to prevent enemy bomber pilots from using city lights as navigational guides.
The Meaning: This led to the creation of "blackout curtains" and strict "blackout regulations." In this context, the word evolved from a controlled stage trick into a widespread matter of public safety and national security.
Psychological and Technical Evolution
By the mid-1940s, the term began to be used metaphorically and physiologically.
Medical: It was adopted to describe a temporary loss of consciousness or a "lapse in memory" (often related to alcohol consumption or high G-force experienced by pilots).
Information: It also began to describe a "news blackout," where a government or organization would "turn off the lights" on specific information to keep it from the public.
Summary of First Meaning
The very first recorded meanings specifically denote the extinguishing of lights to create darkness. The transition from a literal physical state (a dark room) to a mental state (a dark memory) happened over the course of about thirty years as the word became embedded in the English vocabulary through the trauma of war and the growth of modern medicine.
Phrases + Idioms Containing Black-Outs
Phrases and Idioms with "Black-outs"
Rolling black-outs: A series of intentional, temporary power shutoffs across different areas to avoid a total grid failure.
Information black-outs: The deliberate withholding of news or data by an authority to control a narrative.
Media black-outs: A collective agreement or mandate by news outlets to stop reporting on a specific event or person.
Total black-outs: A state of absolute darkness or a complete loss of memory regarding a specific timeframe.
Drawing the black-outs: Originally referring to closing heavy curtains during wartime, now used to describe shutting oneself off from the outside world.
Idioms Using Synonyms or Related Concepts
Out like a light: To fall asleep or lose consciousness instantaneously.
In the dark: To be kept uninformed or unaware of a specific situation.
Draw a blank: To have a sudden "black-out" of memory when trying to recall a specific piece of information.
Keep it under wraps: To maintain a "black-out" on information to keep it secret.
Burn the fuse: To reach a point of exhaustion that leads to a mental or physical collapse (a "black-out").
Vocabulary-Based Stories from SEA
Source Information
Definition of black-outs from The Academic Glossary at Self Exploration Academy, a Urikville Press Publication. © All rights reserved.
