dusk
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Dusk
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English dosk, dusk(e) (“dusky”, adj.), from Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”), from Proto-Germanic *duskaz (“dark, smoky”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes-, related to *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, mist, haze”). Cognate to Latin fuscus (“dark, dusky”), Sanskrit धूसर (dhūsara, “dust-colored”), Old Irish donn (“dark”). Related to dye, dust and dun (see these for more).
Adjective
dusk (comparative dusker, superlative duskest)
- Tending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky.
- 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J. M for John Starkey , →OCLC:
- A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades.
Noun
dusk (countable and uncountable, plural dusks)
- The time after the sun has set but when the sky is still lit by sunlight; the evening twilight period.
- A darkish colour.
- 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:
- Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin.
- The condition of being dusky; duskiness
Synonyms
- (period of time): evenfall, nightfall, smokefall, vespers; see also Thesaurus:dusk
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “period of time”): dawn, daybreak; see also Thesaurus:dawn
Hypernyms
- (period of time): twilight; see also Thesaurus:twilight
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
period of time at the end of day when sun is below the horizon but before full onset of night
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See also
- (times of day) time of day; dawn, morning, noon/midday, afternoon, dusk, evening, night, midnight (Category: en:Times of day)
Etymology 2
From Middle English dusken, from Old English doxian.
Verb
dusk (third-person singular simple present dusks, present participle dusking, simple past and past participle dusked)
- (intransitive) To begin to lose light or whiteness; to grow dusk.
- 1936, Alfred Edward Housman, More Poems, XXXIII, lines 25-27:
- I see the air benighted
And all the dusking dales,
And lamps in England lighted,
- (transitive) To make dusk.
- 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. , (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: Adam Islip, published 1635, →OCLC:
- After the sun is up, that shadow which dusketh the light of the Moone must needs be under the earth.
Translations
to grow dusk
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See also
- “dusk”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
Middle English
Adjective
dusk
- Alternative form of dosk