BENIGHT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does benight mean? 

• BENIGHT (verb)
  The verb BENIGHT has 3 senses:

1. overtake with darkness or night

2. envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness

3. make darker and difficult to perceive by sight

  Familiarity information: BENIGHT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BENIGHT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they benight    ... he / she / it benights   
Past simple: benighted   
Past participle: benighted   
-ing form: benighting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overtake with darkness or night

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "benight" is one way to...):

overcome; overpower; overtake; overwhelm; sweep over; whelm (overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

The benighted peoples of this area

Hypernyms (to "benight" is one way to...):

enclose; enfold; envelop; enwrap; wrap (enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make darker and difficult to perceive by sight

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

bedim; benight

Hypernyms (to "benight" is one way to...):

darken (make dark or darker)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

The poor, benighted innocent had never seen such a man.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But Miss Mills, mistrusting the acceptability of her presence to the higher powers, had not yet gone; and we were all benighted in the Desert of Sahara.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)