Definition of "noir" []

• Of or relating to the film noir genre. (adjective)
• Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings. (adjective)
• Suggestive of danger or violence. (adjective)

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.

• "Editor Tim McLoughlin has selected stories that truly deserve the term noir, which is unusual now that "noir" seems to be used for everything that isn't a cozy."
• "The term noir was coined in 1946 by French critics reviewing a group of American thrillers, including Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and Otto Preminger's Laura, both from 1944, to mark a phenomenon they thought new to American cinema, a "harsh," "true to life" quality, a mood of "pessimism and despair.""
• "One, a lot of noir is about male characters, not female."