1A strip of black material worn round the upper arm as a mark of respect for someone who has recently died.
many staff members wore black armbands to commemorate the tragedy
Example sentencesExamples
Some members of the participating teams wore black armbands, in his memory.
The teams carried on bravely, both wearing black armbands.
Jockeys will wear black armbands in every race throughout the three days of the Grand National and there will be one-minute silences when the horses are at the post.
Then we held a silent march with black armbands.
Shops closed to mark the Royal death, and men wore black armbands to mourn.
When George V died the whole of London donned black armbands.
She remembers having to wear a white flower in her hair and a black armband.
The team wore black armbands on day two of the second cricket test against South Africa.
Both teams wore black armbands in tribute to the player who died just over a month short of his 34th birthday from cancer.
If you see a bike courier wearing a black armband this week, it's for a 22-year-old messenger who died last Saturday afternoon.
2Australian NZ derogatory A view that emphasizes the negative aspects of Australian history, especially by focusing on the dispossession and ill treatment of the indigenous people.
he denounced the black armband view of history
Compare with white blindfold
Example sentencesExamples
This tendency continues to this very day with historians speaking disparagingly of a "black armband" approach to history.
He has stated he won't allow a "black armband" view of Australian history to dominate the classroom.
I accept that Australia's history involved great injustice, oppression and dispossession of indigenous people, wholesale death by disease and significant levels of violent killing, though less than claimed by the most extreme "black armband" adherents.
His "black armband" view of indigenous history has made him a favourite target of the reactionary right.
It refutes the "black armband" view of Australian history and seeks to overturn the concept of white guilt and black victimhood which have become embedded in the national psyche.
He declared: "I profoundly reject the black armband view of Australian history."
He has refused to accept the black armband version of our history.
If they represent what some have called 'a black armband view of history', I for one wear it as a mark of sorrow and as a commitment to reconciliation.
The fact that Cathie clearly has an opinion does not make her a "shill" for the 'black armband' mob.
What so-called 'black armband historians' do is expose the myth that there was this unified time and place where everyone lived happily together in a community.