dark

Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.

Adjective

  1. Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
    • The room was too dark for reading.
    • It was a dark and stormy night, the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets […] - 1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Paul...
    • They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come...

    Synonyms: dim gloomy

    Antonyms: bright light lit

    1. (of a source of light) Extinguished.

      • Dark signals should be treated as all-way stop signs.

      Synonyms: dim gloomy doused out quenched

      Antonyms: bright light lit

    2. Deprived of sight; blind.

      • He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years. - 1661 April 7 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 29 March 1661]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life...

      Synonyms: dim gloomy eyeless sightless unseeing

      Antonyms: bright light lit

  2. Transmitting, reflecting, or receiving inadequate light to render timely discernment or comprehension

    Synonyms: caliginous darkling dim gloomy lightless sombre

    Antonyms: luminous radiant aglow alight beamful beamsome beamy brilliant effulgent glowing illuminating lambent lighted lit lucent luciferous lucific luminant luminiferous lustrous orient profulgent refulgent resplendent

  3. Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.
    • My sister’s hair is darker than mine.
    • Her skin grew dark with a suntan.
    • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers. - 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in...

    Synonyms: deep dark dull dusky full fuscous languid muted inky intense saturated somber swarthy

    Antonyms: bright light pale

  4. Ambiguously or unclearly expressed.
    • What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word? - c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain. - [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please...
    • The Ways of Heav’n are dark and intricate, Puzzled in Mazes, and perplext with Errors; Our Underſtanding traces ’em in vain, Loſt and bewilder’d in the fruitleſs Search; […] - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison,...

    Synonyms: enigmatic esoteric mysterious obscure undefined arcane dark mystic occult recondite

  5. Marked by or conducted with secrecy.
    • The dark side of the moon.
    • dark money
    • Meantime we shall express our darker purpose - c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard,...

    Synonyms: clandestine hidden secret sinister surreptitious covered concealed dark dern invisible inward latent nondisplayed obfuscated obfuscatory obscure obscured occluded occulted private recondite secluded secreted silent

    1. (gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.

      • The first favourite was never heard of, the second favourite was never seen after the distance post, all the ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse, which had never been thought of, and which the careless [Duke...

      Synonyms: clandestine hidden secret sinister surreptitious covered concealed dark dern invisible inward latent nondisplayed obfuscated obfuscatory obscure obscured occluded occulted private recondite secluded secreted silent

  6. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malevolent, malign.
    • a dark villain
    • a dark deed
    • Left him at large to his own dark designs. - 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker,...

    Synonyms: demonic malign sinister abandoned arrant bad bad apple bad seed baleful scurrilous baneful base black-hearted dark deleterious depraved despicable detrimental devilish diabolical evil evil-minded facinorous flagitious

  7. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
    • The Great Depression was a dark time.
    • The film was a dark psychological thriller.
    • A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature. - 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous...

    Synonyms: dreary hopeless negative pessimistic cheerless comfortless bleak dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate dismal doleful dolesome drear drearisome dreich forlorn gayless gray gloomsome gloomy

  8. Lacking progress in science or the arts.
    • The dark ages began after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
    • The Greek Dark Ages began after the Bronze Age collapse.
    • The age wherein he lived was dark, but he Could not want light who taught the world to see. - 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:

    Synonyms: unenlightened

  9. Extremely sad, depressing, or somber, typically due to, or marked by, a tragic or undesirable event.
    • September 11, 2001, the day when four terrorist attacks destroyed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, is often referred to as America’s dark day.

    Synonyms: grievous mournful atrabiliary atrabilious deplorable depressing distressing heartbreaking heartrending miserable lamentable lachrymable regrettable rueful sad saddening sorrowful tragic unhappy upsetting woebegone woeful blitheless dispirited

  10. With emphasis placed on the unpleasant and macabre aspects of life; said of a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction presented in narrative form, or a portion of either.
    • The ending of this book is rather dark.
    • This show is full of dark humor.
  11. Off the air; not transmitting.

Origin

From Middle English derk, from Old English deorc, from Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“dull, dirty”).

Forms

darker darkest

Synonyms

blear caliginous cimmerian crepuscular dark darksome darkling dim dimpsy dingy dull dusky fuliginous gloomy infernal leaden lightless mirksome murky murksome obscure shady somber sombrous

Antonyms

bright glowing light lit luminous luminiferous radiant shining sunny

Hyponyms

dark as Egypt

Related

darken darkling darkness Egyptian darkness dark colour

Derived

0-dark-hundred 0-dark-thirty Alexander's dark band all cats are grey in the dark antidark bedark dark academia dark academic dark-activity dark-adapted dark advertising dark age dark ages Dark Ages Dark Alfs dark alternative scene dark ambient dark and stormy dark art dark as Egypt dark as pitch dark as the inside of a cow dark blue dark-blue snakeweed

Noun

  1. A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
    • Dark surrounds us completely.
    • Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out. - c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
    • The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of...
  2. Ignorance.
    • We kept him in the dark.
    • The lawyer was left in the dark as to why the jury was dismissed.
    • Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark. - c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
  3. Nightfall.
    • It was after dark before we got to playing baseball.
  4. A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
    • The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights. - 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall...

Origin

From Middle English derk, derke, dirke, dyrke, from the adjective (see above), or possibly from an unrecorded Old English *dierce, *diercu (“dark, darkness”).

Forms

darks

Synonyms

darkness cluelessness knowledgelessness unawareness crepusculum evenfall mirkning

Derived

after dark all cats are gray in the dark at dark before dark black dark dusky dark glow-in-the-dark in the dark leap in the dark murder in the dark oh dark thirty shot in the dark whistle in the dark

Verb

  1. To grow or become dark, darken.
  2. To remain in the dark, lurk, lie hidden or concealed.
    • To dark is still used in Swaledale (Yorkshire) in the sense of to lie hid, as, 'Te rattens [rats] mun ha bin darkin whel nu [till now]; we hannot heerd tem tis last fortnith'. - 1873, Richard Morris, Walter William...
  3. To make dark, darken; to obscure.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg-o-s Proto-Germanic *derkaz? Proto-West Germanic *derk Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-West Germanic *-ōn Proto-West Germanic *derkōn Old English deorcian Middle English derken English dark Inherited from Middle English derken, from Old English deorcian, from Proto-West Germanic *derkōn, from *derk (“dirty, dark”) + *-ōn.

Forms

darks darking darked

Related

black shadow