dark

adjective darker · darkest

1. Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light. The room was too dark for reading.

   Similar: dim, gloomy · Opposite: bright, light, lit

2. of a source of light Extinguished. Dark signals should be treated as all-way stop signs.

   Similar: dim, gloomy, doused, out, quenched · Opposite: bright, light, lit

3. Deprived of sight; blind. He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.

   Similar: dim, gloomy, eyeless, sightless, unseeing · Opposite: bright, light, lit

4. Transmitting, reflecting, or receiving inadequate light to render timely discernment or comprehension

   Similar: caliginous, darkling, dim, gloomy, lightless, sombre · Opposite: luminous, radiant, aglow, alight, beamful, beamsome, beamy, brilliant, effulgent, glowing, illuminating, lambent

5. of colour Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light. My sister’s hair is darker than mine.

   Similar: deep, dark, dull, dusky, full, fuscous, languid, muted, inky, intense, saturated, somber · Opposite: bright, light, pale

6. Ambiguously or unclearly expressed. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?

   Similar: enigmatic, esoteric, mysterious, obscure, undefined, arcane, dark, mystic, occult, recondite

7. Marked by or conducted with secrecy. The dark side of the moon.

   Similar: clandestine, hidden, secret, sinister, surreptitious, covered, concealed, dark, dern, invisible, inward, latent

8. of race horses Having racing capability not widely known. 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 i

   Similar: clandestine, hidden, secret, sinister, surreptitious, covered, concealed, dark, dern, invisible, inward, latent

9. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malevolent, malign. a dark villain

   Similar: demonic, malign, sinister, abandoned, arrant, bad, bad apple, bad seed, baleful, scurrilous, baneful, base

10. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak. The Great Depression was a dark time.

    Similar: dreary, hopeless, negative, pessimistic, cheerless, comfortless, bleak, dark, morose, depressing, desolate, dire

11. of a time period Lacking progress in science or the arts. The dark ages began after the collapse of the Roman Empire.

    Similar: unenlightened

12. Extremely sad, depressing, or somber, typically due to, or marked by, a tragic or undesirable event. 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.

    Similar: grievous, mournful, atrabiliary, atrabilious, deplorable, depressing, distressing, heartbreaking, heartrending, miserable, lamentable, lachrymable

13. 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.
14. of a television station Off the air; not transmitting.

Similar: adumbral, blear, caliginous, cimmerian, crepuscular, dark, darksome, darkling, dim, dimpsy, dingy, dull, dusky, fuliginous, gloomy, infernal, leaden, lightless, mirksome, murky, murksome, obscure, shady, somber, sombrous, stygian, sunless, swarthy, tenebrose, tenebrous · Opposite: bright, glowing, light, lit, luminous, luminiferous, radiant, shining, sunny

noun darks

1. uncountable, usually A complete or (more often) partial absence of light. Dark surrounds us completely.

   Similar: darkness

2. uncountable, usually Ignorance. We kept him in the dark.

   Similar: cluelessness, knowledgelessness, unawareness

3. uncountable, usually Nightfall. It was after dark before we got to playing baseball.

   Similar: crepusculum

4. uncountable, usually A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc. The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights.

Similar: evenfall, mirkning

verb darks · darking · darked

1. intransitive To grow or become dark, darken.
2. intransitive To remain in the dark, lurk, lie hidden or concealed. 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.

proper noun Darks

1. A surname.