Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Dusky

Dusk′y

,
Adj.
1.
Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; dusk;
as, a
dusky
valley
.
Through
dusky
lane and wrangling mart.
Keble.
2.
Tending to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright;
as, a
dusky
brown
.
Bacon.
When Jove in
dusky
clouds involves the sky.
Dryden.
The figure of that first ancestor invested by family tradition with a dim and
dusky
grandeur.
Hawthorne.
3.
Gloomy; sad; melancholy.
This
dusky
scene of horror, this melancholy prospect.
Bentley.
4.
Intellectually clouded.
Though
dusky
wits dare scorn astrology.
Sir P. Sidney.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dusky

DUSKY

,
Adj.
1.
Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; as a dusky valley.
A dusky torch.
2.
Tending to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright; as a dusky brown.
Dusky clouds.
3.
Gloomy; sad.
This dusky scene of horror.
4.
Intellectually clouded; as a dusky sprite.

Definition 2024


dusky

dusky

English

Adjective

dusky (comparative duskier, superlative duskiest)

  1. Dimly lit, as at dusk (evening).
    I like it when it is dusky, just before the street lights come on.
    • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict:
      A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
  2. A shade of color that is rather dark.
    The dusky rose was of a muted color, not clashing with any of the other colors.
  3. (dated) dark-skinned
    1911, James Creelman, Diaz: Master of Mexico, D. Appleton and Company, page v:
    • In the raw attempt to apply the perfected institutions of Anglo-Saxon civilization to the descendants of the dusky races which inhabited Mexico before the discovery of America by Columbus, the Mexican statesmen of 1824 put the principles of democratic government to a terrible ordeal.
  4. ashen, greyish skin coloration
    This man in shock has a silver colored dusky skin tone.

Translations

Noun

dusky (plural duskies)

  1. A dusky shark.
  2. A dusky dolphin.