darkling

From Middle English derkelyng, from derk (“dark”) + -lyng (“-ling”). The verb darkle is a back-formation from darkling.

darkling (plural darklings)

1. Darkness.
2. (fantasy) A creature that lives in the dark.

darkling (not comparable)

1. (poetic) Dark; darkening.
   • 1867, Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach:

     And we are here as on a darkling plain

     Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

     Where ignorant armies clash by night

2. (figuratively) Obscure; taking place unseen, as if in the dark.

darkling (not comparable)

1. In the dark; in obscurity.
   • William Shakespeare, King Lear

     So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling.

   • John Milton

     As the wakeful bird sings darkling.

darkling

1. present participle of darkle

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

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