Meanings
nounblackwork (uncountable)
- uncountablebusinessA form of counted-thread embroidery that is usually stitched on even-weave fabric with a twisted thread.
All those garments are long gone since, that Katherine embroidered with Spanish blackwork.
2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 334 - obsoleteuncountableWork connected with funerals, as an undertaker's assistant or a maker of mourning clothes, etc.
In Mary Barton (1848), the seamstress sewing black mourning clothes is referred to as being engaged in 'blackwork', while the manufacturing company, the Courtaulds, held a monopoly on crapes from the onset of funeral practices […]
2016, Haewon Hwang, London's Underground Spaces
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
blackwork. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwork
MLA
“blackwork.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwork. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blackwork,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blackwork.
Source: blackwork on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.