subs. phr. (colloquial).—Writing; printing; the black characters of print or writing on white paper. Hence, TO PUT A THING DOWN IN BLACK AND WHITE = to preserve it in writing or in print: black on white is a variant.
1598. JONSON, Every Man in his Humour, iv. 2. I have it here in BLACK AND WHITE. [Pulls out the warrant].
1667. SHIRLEY, Love Tricks, ii. 2. Gor. [with a Letter] … Alas, poor gentleman! Little does he think what BLACK AND WHITE is here.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BLACK AND WHITE, under one’s Hand, or in Writing.
1712. Spectator, No. 286. My desire is, Sir, that you will be pleased to give us, in BLACK AND WHITE, your opinion in the matter of dispute between us.
1714. Spectator, No. 616. They had like to have dumfounded the justice; but his clerk came in to his assistance, and took them all down in BLACK AND WHITE.
1753. RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, II. 69. Now am I down in BLACK AND WHITE for a tame fool; is it not so?
1837. CARLYLE, The French Revolution, III., bk. II., viii. His accounts lie all ready, correct in BLACK AND WHITE to the uttermost farthing. Ibid., Misc. iii. 79. The original covenant, stipulating to produce Paradise Lost on the one hand and five pounds sterling on the other still lies (we have been told) in BLACK-ON-WHITE, for inspection and purchase by the curious, at a bookshop in Chancery Lane.
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. xii., 202. A man can’t so much as put on a pair of clean stockings in the morning, but it’s laid before high quarters in BLACK AND WHITE at mid-day by the secret police!
