dark

From Middle English derk, from Old English deorc (“dark, obscure, gloomy, without light, dreadful, horrible, sad, cheerless, sinister, wicked”), from Proto-Germanic *derkaz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“dull, dirty”).

• (General American) enPR: därk, IPA^(key): /dɑɹk/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: därk, IPA^(key): /dɑːk/

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• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)k

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.

   The room was too dark for reading.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 030:

     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.

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

   2. Deprived of sight; blind.
      • (Can we date this quote?) John Evelyn

        He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.

2. (of colour) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.

   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 639762314, page 0045:

     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.

3. Hidden, secret, obscure.
   • 1603-1606, William Shakespeare, King Lear, i 1

     Meantime we shall express our darker purpose

   1. Not clear to the understanding; not easily through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
      • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

        What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?

      • 1594-, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

        What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain.

      • 1801, Isaac Watts, The improvement of the mind, or A supplement to the art of logic

        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.

      • (Can we date this quote?) John Shairp

        the dark problems of existence

   2. (gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.
4. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malign.

   a dark villain;  a dark deed

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Left him at large to his own dark designs.

5. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.

   the Great Depression was a dark time;  the film was a dark psychological thriller

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay

     A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Washington Irving

     There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

6. Lacking progress in science or the arts; said of a time period.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir John Denham

     The age wherein he lived was dark, but he / Could not want light who taught the world to see.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Arthur Hallam

     The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.

7. With emphasis placed on the unpleasant 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.

• (relative lack of light): dim, gloomy, see also Thesaurus:dark
• (sinister or secret): hidden, secret, sinister, see also Thesaurus:hidden
• (without morals): malign, sinister, see also Thesaurus:evil
• (of colour): deep, see also Thesaurus:dark colour
• (conducive to hopelessness): hopeless, negative, pessimistic
• (lacking progress): unenlightened

• (relative lack of light): bright, light, lit
• (of colour): bright, light, pale

• darken

dark (usually uncountable, plural darks)

1. A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎:

     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 tissue. […].

   • 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.

   Dark surrounds us completely.

2. (uncountable) Ignorance.

   We kept him in the dark.

   The lawyer was left in the dark as to why the jury was dismissed.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Locke

     Till we perceive by our own understandings, we are as much in the dark, and as void of knowledge, as before.

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Dryden

     The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights.

• black
• shadow

• k-rad

English

dark (invariable)

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