Definition of "black art" [black• art]

• Black magic; witchcraft. (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.

• "Those who practise the black art are all "wizards" or "witches" -- names never given to practisers of the white art."
• "One night, back in acting class, while I am sitting in the dark taking scrupulous notes in the giant black art notebook I am never without, my repetitively Oscar-thanked acting teacher interrupts himself midcritique, of two actors we are barely enduring, to announce, “Moon, you look like a writer.”"
• "There were a good many professors of the black art at this date, and Lilly studied under one Evans, a scoundrelly ex-parson from Wales, until, according to Lilly's own account, he discovered Evans to be the cheat he undoubtedly was."