dark
Listen:Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dark/dɑːk/
▶adjective
- 1 with little or no light.
- 2 of a deep or sombre colour.
■ (of skin, hair, or eyes) brown or black.
■ (of a person) having dark skin, hair, or eyes.
- 3 characterized by unhappiness or unpleasantness: the dark days of the war.
■ (of an expression) angry.
■ evil; sinister: dark deeds.
- 4 mysterious: a dark secret.
■ (darkest) humorous (of a region) most remote, inaccessible, or uncivilized.
■ archaic ignorant.
- 1 (the dark) the absence of light.
■ a dark colour or shade.
- 2 nightfall.
– phrases
in the dark in a state of ignorance.
keep something dark Brit. keep something secret.
a shot (or stab) in the dark a mere guess.
in the dark in a state of ignorance.
keep something dark Brit. keep something secret.
a shot (or stab) in the dark a mere guess.
– derivatives
darkish adjective,
darkly adverb,
darkness noun,
darksome adjective (literary).
darkish adjective,
darkly adverb,
darkness noun,
darksome adjective (literary).
– origin OE deorc, of Gmc origin.
'dark' also found in these Oxford entries:
adder
- adzuki
- agouti
- ambrosia beetle
- amoroso
- andesite
- anthracnose
- Appaloosa
- asphalt
- astrakhan
- augite
- balsamic vinegar
- basalt
- bathypelagic
- beetroot
- Belgian hare
- bibb lettuce
- bice
- biffin
- biotite
- Birman
- black
- blackamoor
- blackboard
- black bread
- black diamond
- blacken
- black-eyed Susan
- blackfish
- blackfly
- blackout
- blackwater fever
- blackwood
- blot
- blue heeler
- bock
- bonito
- bottle green
- bromine
- brown
- brown ale
- brown fat
- brown trout
- brunette
- Byronic
- cacomistle
- Calvin cycle
- camera
- camera obscura
- carbonado
