Definition of "blackface" [blackface]

• Makeup for a conventionalized comic travesty of Black people, especially in a minstrel show. (noun)
• An actor wearing such makeup in a minstrel show. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Putting a nonblack actor in blackface is so easy to avoid, that producers simply cannot avoid the question, "why didn't you just get a black actor to do it?""
• "And here comes the chorus of Republican Governors in "blackface" singing "Oh, dem golden slippers"!"
• "This American war criminal, wearing the offensive 'blackface', is preparing to shoot defenceless civilians, house pets, and house plants, as part of an ongoing campaign of war atrocities."