black up

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

1. (transitive, intransitive, literally) To become or make (something) black or darker.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To put on or wear 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.

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