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darken. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
darken, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
darken in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
darken you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English derkenen, dirkenen, from Old English *deorcnian, *diercnian (“to darken”), from Proto-West Germanic *dirkinōn (“to darken”), equivalent to dark + -en.
Cognate with Scots derken, durken (“to darken”), Old High German tarchanjan, terchinen (“to darken”), Middle High German terken, derken (“to darken”).
Pronunciation
Verb
darken (third-person singular simple present darkens, present participle darkening, simple past and past participle darkened)
- (transitive) To make dark or darker by reducing light.
1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 56-58:So spake the Sovran voice, and Clouds began
To darken all the Hill […]
- (intransitive) To become dark or darker (having less light).
1783, William Blake, “The Couch of Death”, in Richard Herne Shepherd, editor, Poetical Sketches, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, published 1868, page 84:[…] the owl and the bat flew round the darkening trees:
1930, Zane Grey, “Chapter Twelve”, in The Shepherd of Guadeloupe:[…] leaning at her window she watched the end of that eventful day darken over the ranges.
- (impersonal) To get dark (referring to the sky, either in the evening or as a result of cloud).
1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. , volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., , →OCLC, page 289:Well, I must go in now; and you too: it darkens.
1901, William Stearns Davis, “Chapter 4”, in A Friend of Cæsar, New York: Macmillan, page 57:Then they passed out from the Forum, forced their way through the crowded streets, and soon were through the Porta Ratumena, outside the walls, and struck out across the Campus Martius, upon the Via Flaminia. It was rapidly darkening.
1945, Gertrude Stein, Wars I Have Seen, London: B.T. Batsford, page 13:From babyhood until fourteen, to play in a garden in the evening when it is darkening is a legend.
1996, Colm Tóibín, “Portrait of the Artist as a Spring Lamb”, in The Kilfenora Teaboy: A Study of Paul Durcan, Dublin: New Island Books, page 7:It had been fine all morning, but it was darkening now, the weather was going to get worse.
2005, David Almond, chapter 10, in Clay, London: Hodder Literature, page 44:He looked up. It was darkening here as well. Sky getting red, the edge of the quarry dark and jagged against it.
- (transitive) To make dark or darker in colour.
2009, Alice Munro, “Free Radicals”, in Too Much Happiness, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, page 118:She puts on lipstick and darkens her eyebrows, which are now very scanty […]
- (intransitive) To become dark or darker in colour.
1979, Mary Stewart, The Last Enchantment, New York: Fawcett Crest, Book 4, Chapter 4, p. 405:The lovely hair had lost its rose-gold glimmer, and had darkened to rose-brown […]
- (transitive) To render gloomy, darker in mood.
c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not
The mirth o’ the feast.
1969, Chaim Potok, chapter 4, in The Promise, New York: Fawcett Crest, published 1872, page 89:It was a pleasure seeing you again. I’m only sorry I had to darken the pleasure with my private problems.
- (intransitive) To become gloomy, darker in mood.
- 1797, Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, London: T. Cadell Jun and W. Davies, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 303,
- His countenance darkened while he spoke
- (transitive) To blind, impair the eyesight.
- 1773, Samuel Johnson, letter to James Boswell dated 5 July, 1773, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, Volume I, London: Charles Dilly, p. 424,
- When your letter came to me, I was so darkened by an inflammation in my eye, that I could not for some time read it.
- (intransitive) To be blinded, lose one’s eyesight.
- (transitive) To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible.
May 14 1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, volume 4, number 121, London: J. Payne & J. Bouquet, page 193:His [Edmund Spenser’s] stile was in his own time allowed to be vicious, so darkened with old words and peculiarities of phrase, and so remote from common use, that Johnson boldly pronounces him to have written no language.
1922, E R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros, London: Jonathan Cape, page 18:“Darken not counsel,” said Corund, “to me and my sons. Have I not these four years past been as a brother unto thee, and wilt thou still be secret toward us?”
- (transitive) To make foul; to sully; to tarnish.
c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :I must not think there are
Evils enow to darken all his goodness:
- (intransitive) To be extinguished or deprived of vitality, to die.
Conjugation
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
to make dark by reducing light
to become darker (less bright)
to make dark(er) in colour
to become dark(er) in colour
Translations to be checked
Anagrams