dusken

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

dusk +‎ -en

Verb[edit]

dusken (third-person singular simple present duskens, present participle duskening, simple past and past participle duskened)

  1. (transitive) To make dusky or obscure.
    • 1932, James Joyce, “From a Banned Writer to a Banned Singer”, in The Complete Works of James Joyce[1], published 2016:
      It was last seen and heard of by some macgillic-cuddies above a lonely valley of their reeks, duskening the greylight as it flew, its cry echechohoing among the anfractuosities: pour la dernière fois,' The blackbulled ones, stampeding, drew in their horns, all appailed and much upset, which explaints the guttermilk on their overcoats.
    • 1906, George Banghart Henry Swayze, Yarb and Cretine[2], page 123:
      Twilight began to dusken the quiet of the house.
    • 1550, Thucydides, translated by Thomas Nichols, The hystory writtone by Thucidides the Athenyan of the warre, translation of History of the Peloponnesian War (in Ancient Greek):
      The sayd epigrame was not utterly defaced, but only duskened or rased.
  2. (intransitive) To grow or become dusky.
    • 1801, Henry James Pye, Alfred:
      Noble you must be: noble too am I / If true the tale that Danewulf loves to tell / When twilight duskens round the crackling logs
    • 1945, Grace Livingston Hill, All Through the Night[3]:
      He vanished so quickly that she looked down the duskening street in vain to see a stalwart officer, whom she had fully intended to accompany on his way to get a little better acquainted with him.
    • 1995 [1924], Dmitri Nabokov, “La Veneziana”, in The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, translation of original by Vladimir Nabokov:
      When in a meadow, or, as now, in a quiet, already duskening wood, he would involuntarily begin to wonder if, through this silence, he might perhaps hear the entire, enormous world traversing space with a melodious whistle, the bustle of distant cities, the pounding of sea waves, the singing of telegraph wires above the deserts.

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old English doxian; equivalent to dosk +‎ -en (infinitival suffix).

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈdɔskən/, /ˈduskən/, /ˈdɛskən/

Verb[edit]

dusken (rare)

  1. To become or make dark or dusky.

Conjugation[edit]

Descendants[edit]

  • English: dusk

References[edit]