| / English Dictionary |
DARKENING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Changing to a darker color
Synonyms:
blackening; darkening
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("darkening" is a kind of...):
change of color (an act that changes the light that something reflects)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "darkening"):
obfuscation (darkening or obscuring the sight of something)
Derivation:
darken (make dark or darker)
darken (become dark or darker)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Becoming dark or darker as from waning light or clouding over
Example:
the darkening sky
Classified under:
Similar:
dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb darken
Context examples:
Gullies are distinct from another type of feature on Martian slopes, streaks called recurring slope lineae, or RSL, which are distinguished by seasonal darkening and fading, rather than characteristics of how the ground is shaped.
(Mars Gullies Likely Not Formed by Liquid Water, NASA)
It was not only the hurry of preparation that made me feverish; not only the anticipation of the great change—the new life which was to commence to-morrow: both these circumstances had their share, doubtless, in producing that restless, excited mood which hurried me forth at this late hour into the darkening grounds: but a third cause influenced my mind more than they.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
During the eclipse on August 21, the moon will pass between the Earth and the sun, completely blocking the face of the sun and darkening skies all the way from Oregon on the West Coast to South Carolina on the East Coast.
(Perseid Meteor Shower Provides Opening Act for Solar Eclipse, VOA News)
As to Wilson, he was exactly as he had begun in appearance, but twice I saw him close his lips sharply as if he were in a sudden spasm of pain, and the blotches over his ribs were darkening from scarlet to a sullen purple.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My friend, turning a darkening face on Peggotty, when he had watched my mother out, and dismissed her with a nod and a smile; do you know your mistress's name?
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Tissues with decreased RES function such as metastases, primary liver cancer, cysts and various benign tumors, adenomas, and hyperplasia, retain their native signal intensity, consequently the contrast between normal tissue (with image darkening) and abnormal tissue is increased.
(Ferumoxides Injectable Solution, NCI Thesaurus)
Mercury fills only about one-sixth of one pixel as seen from such great distance, so the darkening does not have a distinct shape, but its position follows Mercury's expected path based on orbital calculations.
(Mercury passes in front of the Sun, as seen from Mars, NASA)
For an instant I thought that it was an accident, but a moment later, looking up, I saw a man’s head against the darkening sky, and another stone struck the very ledge upon which I was stretched, within a foot of my head.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We went into the drawing-room with her, and sat down by the darkening window.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
My darkening the light made her look up.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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