DARKNESS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Darkness

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/dˈɑrknəs/ Listen

noun

Darkness n.

1.

The absence of light; blackness; obscurity; gloom. "And darkness was upon the face of the deep."

2.

A state of privacy; secrecy. "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light."

3.

A state of ignorance or error, especially on moral or religious subjects; hence, wickedness; impurity. "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." "Pursue these sons of darkness: drive them out From all heaven's bounds."

4.

Want of clearness or perspicuity; obscurity; as, the darkness of a subject, or of a discussion.

5.

A state of distress or trouble. "A day of clouds and of thick darkness."

Prince of darkness, the Devil; Satan. "In the power of the Prince of darkness."

Synonyms: Darkness, Dimness, Obscurity, Gloom. Darkness arises from a total, and dimness from a partial, want of light. A thing is obscure when so overclouded or covered as not to be easily perceived. As tha shade or obscurity increases, it deepens into gloom. What is dark is hidden from view; what is obscure is difficult to perceive or penetrate; the eye becomes dim with age; an impending storm fills the atmosphere with gloom. When taken figuratively, these words have a like use; as, the darkness of ignorance; dimness of discernment; obscurity of reasoning; gloom of superstition.

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Etymology of 'Darkness'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Darkness" Quotes from Famous Books

... we were in bed, or rather in torture, had become quite stormy, and the waves of the lake beat against the shore with the violence of an agitated sea. There was just sufficient moon to make the "darkness visible," and to show the black clouds drifting with rapid confusion, in broken masses, over our heads. This, joined to the tossing of the billows against the shore—the dark silent groups that came, like shadows, stooping for a moment over ...

— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton

... Bishop answered. "I speak not in reproach, but in gratitude. I have you to thank for showing me my path. You led me from theories about life to life itself. You pulled aside the veils from the social shams. You were light in my darkness, but now I, too, see the light. And I am very happy, only . . ." he hesitated painfully, and in his eyes fear leaped large. "Only the persecution. I harm no one. Why will they not let me alone? But it is not that. It is the nature ...

— The Iron Heel • Jack London

... hasty and confused excuse for not taking Elizabeth into the same place, which was now completely closed in front with logs and bark, saying some-thing that she hardly understood about its darkness, and the unpleasantness of being with the dead body. Miss Temple, however, found a sufficient shelter against the torrent of rain that fell, under the projection of a rock which overhung them, But long before the shower was over, the sounds of voices ...

— The Pioneers • James Fenimore Cooper

... the Lords of Lamentation and Wailing proceed through those rigid locks and depend (from them). Concerning whom it is written, Prov. iv. 19, "The path of the wicked is as darkness; they know not ...

— Hebrew Literature

... crimson upon cloud and water; of violet domes and bell-towers etched against the orange of a western sky; of moonlight silvering breeze-rippled breadths of liquid blue; of distant islands shimmering in sun-litten haze; of music and black gliding boats; of labyrinthine darkness made for mysteries of love and crime; of statue-fretted palace fronts; of brazen clangour and a moving crowd; of pictures by earth's proudest painters, cased in gold on walls of council chambers where Venice sat ...

— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

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