What is "bootblacking"

Usage examples of "bootblacking".

Most of the family moved in with him (a typical arrangement in debtors' prison, which was a fairly open place), but twelve-year-old Charles lived outside in rented rooms so he could work in a factory, pasting labels on bottles of bootblacking (a kind of shoe polish).

I was disguised as an old woman with a floppy hat and had smeared bootblacking on the bandages to give me a black face.

For six dreadful months, he was forced to work as an apprentice in a bootblacking factory, pasting labels on bottles of shoe polish.

As he passed, Brak could hear him wheedling: "Myrkjartan is a most particular friend of mine, so let me speak to him at once, you grinning ninnies, or you'll all find yourselves turned into bootblacking rags.