dark — ONAD · Shobdo

dark /därk, dɑrk

▸ adjective

1 with little or no light:

it's too dark to see much.

▪ (of a theater) closed; not in use:

on Tuesdays he'd wait tables because the theater was dark.

2 (of a color or object) not reflecting much light; approaching black in shade:

dark green.

▪ (of someone's skin, hair, or eyes) brown or black in color:

dark curly hair.

▪ (of a person) having dark skin, hair, or eyes:

both my father and I are very dark.

▪ served or drunk with only a little or no milk or cream.

3 (of a period of time or situation) characterized by tragedy, unhappiness, or unpleasantness:

the dark days of the war.

▪ gloomily pessimistic:

a dark vision of the future.

▪ (of an expression) angry; threatening:

Matthew flashed a dark look at her.

▪ suggestive of or arising from evil characteristics or forces; sinister:

so many dark deeds had been committed.

4 hidden from knowledge; mysterious:

a dark secret.

▪ archaic ignorant; unenlightened:

he is dark on certain points of scripture.

5 Phonetics denoting a velarized form of the sound of the letter l as it sounds at the end of a word or before another consonant (as in full or bulk in most accents of English). Often contrasted with clear.

▸ noun

1 (the dark) the absence of light in a place:

Carolyn was sitting in the dark

he's scared of the dark.

▪ nightfall:

I'll be home before dark.

2 a dark color or shade, especially in a painting:

lights and darks are juxtaposed arbitrarily to create a sense of shallow relief.

– PHRASES
the darkest hour is just before the dawn proverb
when things seem to be at their worst they are about to start improving.in the dark
in a state of ignorance about something:

we're clearly being kept in the dark about what's happening.

keep something dark British
keep something secret from other people:

I asked Ann to keep my identity dark.

a shot in the dark (also a stab in the dark)
an act whose outcome cannot be foreseen; a mere guess:

their experiments were little more than shots in the dark.

– DERIVATIVES
darkish /ˈdärkiSH, ˈdɑrkɪʃ

/ adjective

– ORIGIN Old English deorc, of Germanic origin, probably distantly related to German tarnen ‘conceal’.