Obs. exc. dial. Also blek(e, blecke. [The OE. blæc looks like the adj. blæc, BLACK, used subst. If so, ME. blek(e must be unrepresented in OE. and correspond to ON. blek ink (Sw. bläck, Da. blæk ink), OTeut. type *blakjo(m, f. *blak- BLACK]
1. Black fluid substance; spec. ink (obs.); a preparation used by curriers and shoemakers for blacking leather (also called bletch, blatch, bleach) (obs.); black grease round an axle or other revolving part. north. dial.
[c. 970. K. Eadgar, Canons (Anc. Laws, II. 244). We lærað þæt hi … habban blæc and bocfell to heora ʓerædnessum.
a. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 164. Incaustum vel atramentum, blæc.]
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 39. Bleke [1499 blecke], atramentum.
1483. Cath. Angl., 34. Blek, attramen, attramentum.
c. 1505. Dunbar, ‘This Nycht in my Sleip,’ vii. ‘Fy,’ quod the Feynd, ‘thou [sowttar] sairis of blek, Go clenge the clene, and cum to me.’
1570. Levins, Manip., 47. Blecke, bleche, atramentum.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Bleck, the dirty-looking oil or grease at the axle of a cart-wheel.
1876. in Mid. Yorksh. Gloss.
1877. in Holderness Gloss., etc.
2. Soot or smut, a particle of soot. (Still Sc.)
c. 1590. A. Hume, Ep. G. Moncrief. The Censor is impropre to correck, That in himself has ony kinde of bleck.
3. a. A blackamoor. b. A blackguard. mod.Sc.
4. Comb., as † Bleck-fat (= vat), blek-pot, a vessel for holding ‘bleck.’
1468. Medulla Gram., in Cath. Angl., 34. Atramentarium, an ynkhorne or a blek pot.
1483. Cath. Angl., 34. Blek potte, attramentorium.
1562. Richmond. Wills (1853), 156. In a litill house, stocks of a bedde and bleckfatts.
