A black cross or other mark made against the name of a person who has incurred censure, penalty, etc. Also fig.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 129. Who’s pushing on there? I see you, Mrs. Page, Won’t there be a black mark against you?
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 60. Note such a fellow … with a black mark, as a disloyal and disaffected subject.
Hence Black-mark v.
1873. Masson, Drumm. of Hawth., xiii. 278. Ostracise and black mark all who do not come into their confederacy.
