dark - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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”).

A fairly dark (lacking light) railroad station, with a very dark (lacking light) tunnel beyond

A woman with dark hair and skin.

dark (comparative darker, superlative darkest)

  1. Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
    Synonyms: dim, gloomy; see also Thesaurus:dark
    Antonyms: bright, light, lit
    The room was too dark for reading.
    • 1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in Paul Clifford. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 1:
      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 […]
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
      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 by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
    • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
    1. (of a source of light) Extinguished.
      Synonyms: doused, out, quenched
      Dark signals should be treated as all-way stop signs.
    2. Deprived of sight; blind.
      Synonyms: eyeless, sightless, unseeing
  2. Transmitting, reflecting, or receiving inadequate light to render timely discernment or comprehension
    Synonyms: caliginous, darkling, dim, gloomy, lightless, sombre
    Antonyms: luminous, radiant; see also Thesaurus:shining
  3. (of colour) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.
    Synonyms: deep; see also Thesaurus:dark colour
    Antonyms: bright, light, pale
    My sister’s hair is darker than mine.
    Her skin grew dark with a suntan.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:
      If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.
  4. Ambiguously or unclearly expressed.
    Synonyms: enigmatic, esoteric, mysterious, obscure, undefined; see also Thesaurus:arcane
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
      What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 2:
      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; […]
    • 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:
      It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions.
    • 1881, John Shairp, Aspects of Poetry:
      the dark problems of existence
  5. Marked by or conducted with secrecy.
    Synonyms: clandestine, hidden, secret, sinister, surreptitious; see also Thesaurus:hidden
    The dark side of the moon.
    dark money
    1. (gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.
      • 1831, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter V, in The Young Duke. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, book II, page 163:
        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 of] St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph.
  6. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malevolent, malign.
    Synonyms: demonic, malign, sinister; see also Thesaurus:evil
    a dark villain
    a dark deed
    • 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, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      Left him at large to his own dark designs.
  7. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
    Synonyms: dreary, hopeless, negative, pessimistic; see also Thesaurus:cheerless
    The Great Depression was a dark time.
    The film was a dark psychological thriller.
  8. (of a time period) Lacking progress in science or the arts.
    Synonym: unenlightened
    The dark ages began after the collapse of the Roman Empire.
    The Greek Dark Ages began after the Bronze Age collapse.
    • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:
      The age wherein he lived was dark, but he
      Could not want light who taught the world to see.
    • 1837–1839, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
      The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.
  9. Extremely sad, depressing, or somber, typically due to, or marked by, a tragic or undesirable event.
    Synonyms: grievous, mournful; see also Thesaurus:lamentable, Thesaurus:sad
    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.
    • 2014 April 1, “Marathon Mementos Remind of Boston's Dark Day”, in NBC News‎[1]:
  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.
  11. (broadcasting, of a television station) Off the air; not transmitting.

having an absolute or relative lack of light

without moral or spiritual light

not bright or light, deeper in hue

Translations to be checked

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

dark (usually uncountable, plural darks)

  1. A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
    Dark surrounds us completely.
    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out.
    • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
  2. (uncountable) Ignorance.
    We kept him in the dark.
    The lawyer was left in the dark as to why the jury was dismissed.
  3. (uncountable) Nightfall.
    It was after dark before we got to playing baseball.
  4. A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
    • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:
      The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights.

a complete or partial absence of light

ignorance

nightfall

dark shade or dark passage

Translations to be checked

Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg-o-s

Proto-West Germanic *derk

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-West Germanic *-ōn

English dark

Inherited from Middle English derken, from Old English deorcian, from Proto-West Germanic *derkōn, from *derk (“dirty, dark”) + *-ōn.

dark (third-person singular simple present darks, present participle darking, simple past and past participle darked)

  1. (intransitive) To grow or become dark, darken.
  2. (intransitive) To remain in the dark, lurk, lie hidden or concealed.
    • 1873, Richard Morris, Walter William Skeat, “Glossarial Index”, in Specimens of Early English‎[2], volumes II: From Robert of Gloucester to Gower, A.D. 1298—A.D. 1393, Oxford: Clarendon Press, page 490:
      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'.
  3. (transitive) To make dark, darken; to obscure.

Unadapted borrowing from English dark.

dark (invariable)

  1. dark (used especially to describe a form of punk music)

  2. ^ dark in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Borrowed from Moroccan Arabic دارك (dārak).

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

dark (Tifinagh spelling ⴷⴰⵔⴽ)

  1. (transitive) to achieve, to succeed
  2. (transitive) to possess, to obtain, to acquire

This verb needs an inflection-table template.