blackout

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cutoff of electrical power, especially as a result of a shortage, a mechanical failure, or overuse by consumers.
2. n. The concealment or extinguishment of lights that might be visible to enemy aircraft during an air raid.
3. n. The sudden extinguishment of all stage lights in a theater to indicate the passage of time or to mark the end of an act or scene.
4. n. A short, comic vaudeville skit that ends with lights off.
5. n. A temporary loss of memory or consciousness.
6. n. A suppression, as of news, by censorship.
7. n. Restriction or prohibition of telecasting a sports event in order to ensure ticket sales.

Wiktionary

1. n. Temporary loss of consciousness or memory.
2. n. A large-scale power failure, and resulting loss of electricity to consumers.
3. n. The mandatory blocking of all light emanating from buildings as imposed during World War II.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting.
2. n. any darkness resulting from the extinction of lights.
3. n. the failure of electric power for a general region sufficient to extinguish all normal lighting.
4. n. a momentary loss of consciousness.
5. n. partial or total loss of memory.
6. n. a period during which artificial lighting is forbidden, as in a city as a precaution against an air raid.
7. n. (Theater) the darkening of all stage lights, as at then end of a performance or between acts.
8. n. suppression of information distribution.
9. n. 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.
10. v. to experience a temporary loss of consciousness, memory, or vision.
11. v. to cause to become black, such as a stage, a computer screen, or a city.
12. v. to impose a blackout on (news or a sports event).
13. v. to make (a written text) illegible by applying a black ink over it; to blot out.
14. v. to suppress (a memory).

WordNet 3.0

1. v. darken completely
2. v. lose consciousness due to a sudden trauma, for example
3. v. obliterate or extinguish
4. v. suppress by censorship as for political reasons
5. n. a momentary loss of consciousness
6. n. the failure of electric power for a general region
7. n. a suspension of radio or tv broadcasting
8. n. partial or total loss of memory
9. n. darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft)