DUSKY (duskier, duskiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: duskier    , duskiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dusky mean? 

• DUSKY (adjective)
  The adjective DUSKY has 2 senses:

1. lighted by or as if by twilight

2. naturally having skin of a dark color

  Familiarity information: DUSKY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DUSKY (adjective)

Comparative: duskier   
Superlative: duskiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lighted by or as if by twilight

Synonyms:

dusky; twilight; twilit

Context example:

a boat on a twilit river

Similar:

dark (devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black)

Derivation:

dusk (the time of day immediately following sunset)

duskiness (the state of being poorly illuminated)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Naturally having skin of a dark color

Synonyms:

dark-skinned; dusky; swart; swarthy

Context example:

'swart' is archaic

Similar:

brunet; brunette (marked by dark or relatively dark pigmentation of hair or skin or eyes)

Domain usage:

archaicism; archaism (the use of an archaic expression)

Derivation:

duskiness (a swarthy complexion)

 Context examples 

They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little man said, “Let me get down, I’m tired.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

When threatened, the dusky Arion slug secretes an unusual glue, making itself a difficult target for predators.

(New studies may bring slug-made glues closer to use in medicine, Wikinews)

Sterndale’s fierce face turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, passionate veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with clenched hands towards my companion.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Once, after the poor animals that conveyed me had with incredible toil gained the summit of a sloping ice mountain, and one, sinking under his fatigue, died, I viewed the expanse before me with anguish, when suddenly my eye caught a dark speck upon the dusky plain.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I had, by cross-ways and by- paths, once more drawn near the tract of moorland; and now, only a few fields, almost as wild and unproductive as the heath from which they were scarcely reclaimed, lay between me and the dusky hill.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But the hand which I now saw, clearly enough, in the yellow light of a mid-London morning, lying half shut on the bedclothes, was lean, corded, knuckly, of a dusky pallor and thickly shaded with a swart growth of hair.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The symptoms and signs may include rapidly developing adiposity of the face, neck, and trunk, kyphosis caused by osteoporosis of the spine, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, amenorrhea, hypertrichosis in females, impotence in males, dusky complexion with purple markings, polycythemia, pain in the abdomen and back, and muscular wasting and weakness.

(Cushing syndrome, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Gnarled olive trees covered the hills with their dusky foliage, fruit hung golden in the orchard, and great scarlet anemones fringed the roadside, while beyond green slopes and craggy heights, the Maritime Alps rose sharp and white against the blue Italian sky.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Scientists have disclosed new steps toward using natural adhesives made by the dusky Arion slug (Arion subfuscus) in medical applications such as in closing skin wounds and reducing scarring.

(New studies may bring slug-made glues closer to use in medicine, Wikinews)

One, to be sure, had hair a shade darker than the other, and there was a difference in their style of wearing it; Mary's pale brown locks were parted and braided smooth: Diana's duskier tresses covered her neck with thick curls.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)