Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb In the dark.
  • adjective Occurring or enacted in the dark.
  • adjective Dark; dim.
  • noun The dark.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Sitting in the dark.
  • In the dark.
  • Hence Blindly; uncertainly.
  • Dark; obscure; gloomy.
  • Blinded.
  • Rendering dark; obscuring.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing.
  • Dark; gloomy.
  • adverb Poetic In the dark.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun darkness
  • noun fantasy a creature that lives in the dark
  • adjective dark; darkening
  • adjective obscure, done or happening 'in the dark' or unseen
  • adverb in the dark, obscurely
  • verb Present participle of darkle.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective uncannily or threateningly dark or obscure
  • adjective (poetic) occurring in the dark or night

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English derkelyng, from derk ("dark") + -lyng ("-ling").

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Examples

  • Then clipt and clung about his breast enveiled in darkling room.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • And died in darkling air no more to be for ever shown.’

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • Plus, if I just threw in some multisyllabic words, extended my sentences until each was a paragraph long, and used "darkling" a few times, I'd be the Faulkner of Phoenix.

    Gayle Lynds: "Aping" Her Betters 2008

  • Many of her class set out by being impostors, and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves, or when imposing on others.

    Chapter XLVII 1917

  • Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or when imposing on others.

    Guy Mannering 1815

  • Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or when imposing on others.

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Volume 02 Walter Scott 1801

  • Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or when imposing on others.

    Guy Mannering — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or when imposing on others.

    Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete Walter Scott 1801

  • "'Mine was the woman, darkling I found her,'" he hummed, significantly.

    CHAPTER 25 2010

  • To him I reported every detail that occurred when he was not with me; and he, with furrowed brows, sitting darkling by the hour, like a patient spider unravelled the tangle and spun the web afresh.

    Chapter 15 2010

Comments

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  • ... as the wakeful Bird

    Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid

    Tunes her nocturnal Note.

    Milton, Paradise Lost III

    December 18, 2006

  • And we are here as on a darkling plain

    Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight

    Where ignorant armies clash by night.

    – Matthew Arnold , Dover Beach.

    November 3, 2007