of the blackest dye

of the blackest dye

To the furthest degree or extent. If you are trying to get your poor mother to take the blame for you, you are really a criminal of the blackest dye!
See also: black, dye, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • in the extreme
  • as all get out
  • as all getout
  • as as all get out
  • getout
  • of the deepest dye
  • play (something) for all (something) is worth
  • play it for all it's worth
  • be as (something) as all get-out
  • milk (something) for all (something) is worth
References in classic literature
"It's a wonderful thing," adds a third; and then everybody looks sideways at you, convinced you are a scoundrel of the blackest dye; and they glory in the beautiful idea that your true character, unguessed by your fellow-men, has been discovered by the untaught instinct of a little child.
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
Exhibit 84 was that of Bloomfield Rush and reads: "The annals of crime must place the name of Rush at the depth of infamy; he was accused of having in early life, set fire to an haystack; of having rescued a man from custody; of having afterwards murdering his wife, his mother, his father-in-law, and last Mr Jermy and his son, and dangerously wounding Mrs Jermy and her maid; and of having seduced many young women; and of having committed forgeries of the blackest dye.
Looking back to when city had its own waxworks exhibition; Cardiff Remembered