black up

black up (third-person singular simple present blacks up, present participle blacking up, simple past and past participle blacked up)

1. (intransitive) To put on blackface makeup.
   • 2016, Zadie Smith, Swing Time, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 191:

     Cantor starts blacking up, right then and there, painting his face with a burnt piece of cork.

2. (transitive) To make something (e.g. a film, cast, story line, etc.) more racially black in character; blackenize.