Wiktionary
n. One of the four humours of ancient and mediaeval physiology, that was believed to be secreted by the kidneys and spleen and to cause melancholy and sadness when present in excess.
WordNet
n. a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy [syn: melancholy]
Usage examples of "black bile".
The resultant black bile was squeezed in a thin stream into a cup which was then filled with yellow rice wine.
With a sickening gurgle, the black bile is vomited again, this time pouring from the nostrils and eyes as well.
Macrobius teaches that contact with the dank earth can cause black bile to flow, thereby creating a melancholy humor as the natural virtue takes over.
Galen would say that Emily had too much black bile, which makes her melancholy and rather a lot of yellow bile, which makes her testy and sour-natured.
They were images of his power which came to him from far away and increased the bitterness over how much the brine of his power had been watered down since it hadn't even been of any use to conjure up the evil arts of an eclipse, he was shaken by a thread of black bile at the domino table across from the frozen realm of General Rodrigo de Aguilar who was the only man of arms in whom he had confided his life since uric acid had crystallized the joints of the angel with the machete, and yet he wondered if so much confidence and so much authority delegated to one single person might not have been the cause of his misfortune, if it wasn't my lifetime comrade who had turned him into an ox by trying to shear him of his natural fleece of a back-lands leader and convert him into a palace .
Or the red fires and black bile of our brethren burning out nests of the invading elven vermin?
He continued to hold her hand even after she was standing and led her toward a clear brook that fed its pristine waters into the black bile of the Barren River.