blackout

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: black=out

CIDE DICTIONARY

blackout, n. 

•  a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  any darkness resulting from the extinction of lights.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  the failure of electric power for a general region sufficient to extinguish all normal lighting.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  a momentary loss of consciousness.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  partial or total loss of memory.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  a period during which artificial lighting is forbidden, as in a city as a precaution against an air raid.  [PJC]
•  the darkening of all stage lights, as at then end of a performance or between acts.  [PJC]
•  suppression of information distribution; as, there was a blackout on news from the military for the first day of the Gulf War.  [PJC]
•  the prohibition of the broadcasting of a sports event, such as a boxing match or football game, sometimes confined to one particular area. It is usually done to encourage sales of tickets to the event.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

blackout, n.
1 a temporary or complete loss of vision, consciousness, or memory.
2 a loss of power, radio reception, etc.
3 a compulsory period of darkness as a precaution against air raids.
4 a temporary suppression of the release of information, esp. from police or government sources.
5 a sudden darkening of a theatre stage.

THESAURUS

blackout

KO, agnosia, amnesia, anoxia, asteroids, aurora particles, bamboo curtain, barrier of secrecy, blocking, brownout, catalepsy, catatonia, catatony, censorship, coma, cosmic particles, cosmic ray bombardment, curtain, dematerialization, departure, dimout, disappearance, disappearing, dispersion, dissipation, dissolution, dissolving, eclipse, elimination, erasure, evanescence, evaporation, extinction, fadeaway, fadeout, fading, faint, fugue, going, grayout, hush-up, intergalactic matter, iron curtain, ironbound security, kayo, knockout, lipothymia, lipothymy, loss of memory, melting, meteor dust impacts, meteors, nirvana, nirvana principle, nothingness, oath of secrecy, oblivion, obliviousness, occultation, official secrecy, pall, passing, pressure suit, radiation, repression, seal of secrecy, security, semiconsciousness, senselessness, sleep, smothering, space bullets, stifling, stupor, suppression, swoon, syncope, the bends, unconsciousness, vanishing, vanishing point, veil, veil of secrecy, weightlessness, wipe, word deafness, wraps