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Darken

//ˈdɑɹkən// verb

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make dark or darker by reducing light. transitive

    "[…] they [locusts] covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened […]"

  2. 2
    make dark or darker wordnet
  3. 3
    To become dark or darker (having less light). intransitive

    "[…] the owl and the bat flew round the darkening trees:"

  4. 4
    become dark or darker wordnet
  5. 5
    To get dark (referring to the sky, either in the evening or as a result of cloud). impersonal

    "Well, I must go in now; and you too: it darkens."

Show 10 more definitions
  1. 6
    tarnish or stain wordnet
  2. 7
    To make dark or darker in colour. transitive

    "She puts on lipstick and darkens her eyebrows, which are now very scanty […]"

  3. 8
    To become dark or darker in colour. intransitive

    "The lovely hair had lost its rose-gold glimmer, and had darkened to rose-brown […]"

  4. 9
    To render gloomy, darker in mood. transitive

    "With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not The mirth o’ the feast."

  5. 10
    To become gloomy, darker in mood. intransitive

    "1797, Ann Radcliffe, The Italian, London: T. Cadell Jun[ior] and W. Davies, Volume 2, Chapter 9, p. 303, His countenance darkened while he spoke […]"

  6. 11
    To blind, impair the eyesight. transitive

    "Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see […]"

  7. 12
    To be blinded, lose one’s eyesight. intransitive
  8. 13
    To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible. transitive

    "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"

  9. 14
    To make foul; to sully; to tarnish. transitive

    "I must not think there are Evils enow to darken all his goodness:"

  10. 15
    To be extinguished or deprived of vitality, to die. intransitive

    "The Danube to the Severn gave ⁠The darken’d heart that beat no more; ⁠They laid him by the pleasant shore, And in the hearing of the wave."

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”).

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