blackout
blackout — noun
1. a period — from a few minutes up to several days — during which a town, building
a period — from a few minutes up to several days — during which a town, building, or wider area has no electricity, so its lights, lifts, and appliances stop working. The same word also names a wartime rule requiring every window in a city to be covered after dark so enemy bomber crews cannot use the lights below as a target.
A four-hour blackout left half of Taipei without traffic lights last Tuesday.
noun + duration + place: a [time]-hour blackout left [place] without [thing]
During the blackout, Wen lit candles and read his daughter a bedtime story.
preposition: during the blackout
Hurricane Ian caused blackouts across Fort Myers that lasted nearly four days.
Wartime blackouts forced every family in London to hang thick curtains over their windows.
Within seconds of the blackout, the hospital's backup generator kicked in and the operating-room lights flickered back on.
- power outage
neutral American term, focused on electricity loss only
- power cut
British equivalent, same meaning as power outage
- brownout
narrower — partial loss of voltage, lights dim but stay on
文法句型
a blackout in [place]
during the blackout
用法筆記
Often paired with verbs like 'cause', 'suffer', 'experience', or 'hit'. The wartime meaning is now historical, almost always tied to World War II contexts.
常見錯誤
2. a deliberate decision, usually by a government, the police, or a company, to sto
a deliberate decision, usually by a government, the police, or a company, to stop journalists and the public from getting any details about a specific event or topic.
The army imposed a news blackout on the operation in the northern villages.
verb collocation: impose a (news) blackout on [topic]
Reporters in Seoul complained about the media blackout surrounding the trial.
compound: media blackout surrounding [event]
Disney maintained a tight blackout on plot details of the new Star Wars film until opening night.
The Hassan family demanded an end to the news blackout after their son's unit went missing in Mosul.
The Beijing government's blackout on the pipeline explosion in Dalian lasted nearly two weeks before any photos appeared online.
- censorship
broader — any cutting or hiding of content, not only a total ban
- news embargo
softer — sources agree to delay publication until a set time
- gag order
legal — a court tells specific people not to discuss a case
- disclosure
the open release of the same kind of information
文法句型
a blackout on [topic]
media / news blackout
用法筆記
Almost always preceded by 'news', 'media', 'press', 'information', or a body that imposes it. Commonly paired with the verbs 'impose', 'lift', or 'maintain'.
常見錯誤
3. a brief moment in which a person passes out or cannot remember what they did, of
a brief moment in which a person passes out or cannot remember what they did, often caused by heavy drinking, low blood pressure, a head injury, or extreme stress.
Omar had a blackout at the gym and woke up on the floor.
verb collocation: have a blackout (+ where it happened)
After the party, Anaya suffered a blackout and could not recall going home.
alcohol-related blackout: cannot recall [event]
Captain Reyes reported a brief blackout during a sharp turn over the Nevada desert at twice the speed of sound.
Doctors at Kaohsiung General warned Mrs. Lin that her morning blackouts might point to an underlying heart problem.
Mr. Tanaka had a blackout behind the wheel near Yokohama and crashed into a guardrail.
- faint
everyday word for the same event, but shorter and rarely involves memory loss
- fainting spell
neutral medical phrase, focuses on losing consciousness
- syncope
technical medical term for a brief loss of consciousness
文法句型
have / suffer a blackout
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1 (electrical) and sense 2 (information ban): only this sense applies to a person's body. Often plural ('blackouts') when describing a recurring medical symptom.
常見錯誤
blackout — verb
1. if a person blacks out, they suddenly cannot see, lose consciousness, or forget
if a person blacks out, they suddenly cannot see, lose consciousness, or forget a stretch of time, often after drinking too much alcohol or hitting their head.
Linnea blacked out for a few seconds after standing up too quickly.
intransitive + duration: black out for [short time]
The boxer blacked out as soon as the second punch landed on his jaw.
trigger clause: black out as soon as [event]
I drank far too much at the wedding and completely blacked out before midnight.
Air-force trainees at Luke Base often black out the first time their jets pull nine G's in a sharp climb.
After the crash, Wen blacked out and woke up two hours later in hospital.
- pass out
everyday equivalent — slightly more neutral, used for any fainting
- faint
milder — usually a brief loss of consciousness without memory loss
- lose consciousness
formal — used in medical reports
- come round
the recovery action: regaining awareness after fainting
文法句型
[person] blacks out
用法筆記
Subject must be a person (or sometimes an animal). Often paired with adverbs that describe completeness ('completely', 'briefly') or duration ('for a moment', 'for an hour'). Compare with the noun in sense 3.
常見錯誤
2. to draw a thick black line across writing on paper or a screen so that nobody ca
to draw a thick black line across writing on paper or a screen so that nobody can read what was originally there.
Officials had blacked out every name in the report before sending it to the journalists.
transitive + object: black out [proper nouns / names]
Mr. Park blacked out the answer key on the maths worksheet before photocopying it for Year 7.
physical paper: black out [part of a page] before [action]
Sara grabbed a thick Sharpie and blacked out her ex-boyfriend's number in the leather address book on her desk.
Half of the FBI email released to the Times had been blacked out for legal reasons.
Ms. Okafor, the defence lawyer, asked her clerk to black out every witness's home address before filing the court papers.
- reveal
the opposite action: showing what was hidden
文法句型
black out [text / part of a document]
用法筆記
Object is usually a name, number, address, or section of text — something concrete on a page or screen. Frequently used in the passive when describing official documents.
常見錯誤
3. to block or remove a single story, game, or printed passage so the audience in q
to block or remove a single story, game, or printed passage so the audience in question never sees that particular item — for example, pulling one Sunday match off the air in the home team's region, or covering two paragraphs of a magazine before it goes to print. Each act of blocking targets one piece of content rather than a whole subject.
Local channels blacked out the football game for fans inside the stadium's home zone.
broadcast use: black out [a game] for [audience]
Iranian state TV blacked out live coverage of the women's protests outside Tehran's Azadi Tower.
broadcaster + event: [channel] blacked out coverage of [event]
Editors at the magazine were ordered to black out two paragraphs about the minister.
The Hunter Biden laptop story had been blacked out across every major network for nine days.
A High Court ruling in Sydney blacked out further reporting on the Pell appeal until the verdict was delivered.
- broadcast
to send out the very content this verb blocks
文法句型
black out [news / story / broadcast]
用法筆記
Distinguish from the formal-decree sense (ORDER SECRECY): this sense covers the practical, often case-by-case blocking of one specific story, game, or set of paragraphs — not the issuing of a sweeping rule. Common collocates: 'black out a game / coverage / a paragraph / a broadcast'.
常見錯誤
4. to cover the windows or turn off the lights of a room, building, or city so that
to cover the windows or turn off the lights of a room, building, or city so that the inside or the area falls into darkness.
Wardens blacked out the whole village before the bombers flew over.
wartime: black out [place] before [event]
The photographer blacked out the studio with thick black sheets.
instrument: black out [room] with [material]
Marcus and Lina blacked out the nursery with heavy curtains so baby Sofia would sleep through until morning.
Every coastal town along the Channel had been blacked out by sunset.
Stage crews blacked out the theatre between the two acts.
- light up
fill the same place with light
文法句型
black out [place / room]
用法筆記
Object is a place (room, theatre, town), not a piece of text. Distinguish from verb sense 2 (which acts on writing) and verb sense 5 (which kills electrical power, not light).
常見錯誤
5. (of a storm, fault, or attack) to take a machine, building, or whole region out
(of a storm, fault, or attack) to take a machine, building, or whole region out of service by cutting off its electricity supply, so its lights and equipment no longer run. Used with a clear cause as the subject and the affected place or system as the object.
The storm blacked out half of New Jersey for nearly a week.
subject is event: [storm] blacked out [region] for [time]
A failed transformer blacked out the entire Mitsui shopping mall in Yokohama for the whole Saturday afternoon.
subject is fault: [fault] blacked out [building] for [time]
North Korean hackers blacked out HSBC's main trading server in Hong Kong for ninety minutes on Sunday morning.
The east wing of St Mary's Hospital was blacked out for two hours while engineers replaced the burned-out cable.
A falling cypress on Maple Avenue blacked out three streets and trapped two cars under the branches.
- restore power
the opposite action: bringing electricity back
文法句型
black out [equipment / area]
用法筆記
Subject is usually a cause (storm, tree, fault, attack), and the object is the equipment or area that loses power. Distinguish from verb sense 4, which is about hiding light, not about losing electricity.
常見錯誤
6. if a building, street, or wider area blacks out, every light in that place goes
if a building, street, or wider area blacks out, every light in that place goes off at once and the area becomes dark.
The whole neighbourhood blacked out the moment the lightning hit the substation.
subject is place + sudden trigger
Half of Manhattan blacked out during the August heatwave of 2003.
subject + duration of event
The Royal Court Theatre blacked out for two long seconds before the next scene of the Hamlet revival began.
Our office blacked out three times in one afternoon during the typhoon.
If the Texas grid blacks out again, Romero's seafood market will lose every box of king crab.
- go dark
informal — describes the same sudden loss of light
- lose power
neutral — focuses on the electricity itself
- light up
the city becomes bright again
文法句型
[place / building] blacks out
用法筆記
Intransitive — no object. Compare with verb sense 5 (transitive: 'the storm blacked out the city') versus this sense (intransitive: 'the city blacked out'). Pick the intransitive form when no clear cause is named.
常見錯誤
7. (of a ministry, court, or palace) to issue a formal top-down order that forbids
(of a ministry, court, or palace) to issue a formal top-down order that forbids journalists and the public from reporting, mentioning, or discussing an entire subject — for example, the route of a military convoy or the medical condition of a head of state. The order covers the whole topic, not one specific story.
The defence ministry blacked out every detail of the spy exchange.
formal subject: [ministry / agency] blacked out [topic]
Officials had blacked out the route of the convoy until it reached the border.
duration: black out [topic] until [event]
Senior judges chose to black out any reference to the witness's home town.
All news of King Salman's hospital stay was blacked out by royal order until the Crown Prince addressed the nation.
The Ministry of Defence blacked out coverage of the Falklands campaign across every British channel for forty-eight hours.
文法句型
black out [topic / event]
用法筆記
Distinguish from verb sense 3 (BAN COVERAGE): this sense names the formal top-down decree itself, often issued by a ministry, court, or palace, while sense 3 covers the practical blocking of any single story or broadcast. Subject is almost always a high-level institution.
常見錯誤
8. (of a punch, sudden force, or chemical shock) to make a person abruptly lose con
(of a punch, sudden force, or chemical shock) to make a person abruptly lose consciousness or vision — for example, a blow to the jaw flooring a boxer, or G-forces in a steep climb robbing a pilot of sight. The cause is the subject; the person knocked out is the object.
A heavy blow to the chin blacked the fighter out for almost a minute.
subject is force: [blow] blacked [person] out
The sudden G-force blacked the test pilot out during the climb.
aviation context
One whiff of the leaking ammonia blacked Mei out before she could reach the shut-off valve.
The sheer pain from her broken leg almost blacked Anaya out on the snow before the rescue team reached her.
The shock of the freezing harbour briefly blacked out two swimmers during the New Year's Day swim.
- revive
bring the same person back to consciousness
文法句型
[event] blacks [person] out
用法筆記
Rare causative form — most learners only need the intransitive in sense 1. Subject is the cause (a punch, a force, a shock); the object is the person affected.