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Darken   /dˈɑrkən/   Listen
Darken

verb
(past & past part. darkened; pres. part. darkening)
1.
Become dark or darker.
2.
Tarnish or stain.
3.
Make dark or darker.



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"Darken" Quotes from Famous Books



... thing' [Com. on Gal. iv. 21]. Such instructions, from one he so much venerated, curbed his exuberant imagination, and made him doubly watchful, lest allegorizing upon subjects of such vast importance might 'darken counsel ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... them, are come to your hands, for so they hear reporte; which, if it be so, I pray you take notice of this, that I have writen nothing but what is certainly true, and I could make so apeare planly to any indifferente men, whatsoever colours be cast to darken y^e truth, and some ther are very audatious this way; besids many other matters which are farre out of order hear. My mind was not to enlarge my selfe any further, but in respecte of diverse poore souls here, y^e care of whom in parte belongs to you, being here ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... conciliating their good will by a studious regard for their privileges. He likened the king to the sun and the "noblesse" to the moon. Any conflict between the two would produce an eclipse that would darken the entire earth. He denounced the chicanery of the ecclesiastical courts and the non-residence of the priests;[991] and he closed by presenting a petition, which was read aloud by one of the secretaries of state, demanding the grant of churches for ...
— The Rise of the Hugenots, Vol. 1 (of 2) • Henry Martyn Baird

... world about him was awakening. It mattered nothing to him that the white world was passing, and the rivers were starting to flood. The feathered world might wing to greet the new-born season. It might darken the sky with its legions. Such things had no power to stir his pulses, any more than had the thought of the great triumph he had achieved over the desperate Arctic elements, if all ...
— The Heart of Unaga • Ridgwell Cullum

... piazza. Mr. de Valentin came forward eagerly to meet her. I saw his face darken as she whispered in ...
— The Great Secret • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... voice they soon obey'd Innumerable. As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung Like night, and darken'd all ...
— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... worth while to "darken counsel with words" as to methods, when it is evident that the purpose is, not to form any union which would be other than humiliating to a colored man, and contrary to the heretofore held principles of the ...
— The American Missionary, Vol. 43, No. 9, September, 1889 • Various

... over the solemn waste, 865 And the two gazing hosts, and that sole pair, And darken'd all; and a cold fog, with night, Crept from the Oxus. Soon a hum arose, As of a great assembly loosed, and fires Began to twinkle through the fog; for now 870 Both armies moved to camp, and took their meal; The Persians took it on the open sands Southward, the Tartars ...
— Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems • Matthew Arnold

... will grow light soon," said Tayoga, "then it will darken again for a little time before the ...
— The Hunters of the Hills • Joseph Altsheler

... air in a close and darkened room. It meant health to the dwellers in the house over which the tree had cast its shadow. It is much to have tall and stately trees in the garden of life. But by-and-by that great oak of vigour begins to darken the windows of faith, and God lops some of the branches. We call it suffering, but it means more light. Or it may be that those firs of lordly ambition have grown taller than the roof-tree, and God sends forth His storm-wind to lay them low. We call it failure, ...
— The Threshold Grace • Percy C. Ainsworth

... fertile country. Indeed, they appeared mutually pleased and the fleeting hours seemed almost too short for the full enjoyment of each other's conversation. Myself and fellow-travelers enjoyed their mirth and jokes. Little did my friend dream a frightful cloud was hovering over him which threatened to darken all his bright prospects. We were suddenly startled by the shrill Indian warwhoop, which proceeded from a thicket near the house. It may not be amiss to mention here this warwhoop was what my friend had never heard before. ...
— Narrative of Richard Lee Mason in the Pioneer West, 1819 • Richard Lee Mason

... the officer said, "and have brought with me some dye which will darken your skin. It would be worse than useless for you to dress as a Burman, unless you did so; for it would seem even more singular, to the people in the streets, that a white man should be seen walking about dressed as an officer, than that a white prisoner ...
— On the Irrawaddy - A Story of the First Burmese War • G. A. Henty

... and around him his ministers, and Emirs, and chamberlains, and officers of state, and black slaves, and the soldiers of his guard armed with naked scimitars. And the King was as a sun in splendour, severely grave, and a frown on his forehead to darken kingdoms, for the attempt on Shagpat had stirred his kingly wrath, and awakened zeal for the punishment of all conspirators and offenders. So when Shagpat was borne in to the King upon his throne of cushions where he sat upright, smiling and inanimate, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... New York papers in behalf of Harriet was successful. For a week he bought every morning and evening edition and read them eagerly. Not a line appeared to darken the ...
— The Root of Evil • Thomas Dixon

... another sea, one very heavy and almost void of agitation; and by it the whole globe is thought to be bounded and environed, for that the reflection of the sun, after his setting, continues till his rising, so bright as to darken the stars. To this, popular opinion has added, that the tumult also of his emerging from the sea is heard, that forms divine are then seen, as likewise the rays about his head. Only thus far extend the limits of nature, if what fame says be true. Upon ...
— Tacitus on Germany • Tacitus

... sepulchral language, this 'talk fit for a charnel' (to use one of his own phrases), to be out of keeping. It sounds like a presentiment of coming woes, which, as the drama grows to its conclusion, gather and darken on the wretched victims ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds

... daughthers I have meself, me dear—fine, sthrappin' girls as could put you in their pockits. Ye poor little crather! Oh! Murther! Who could harm the likes of ye? Faix, I hope that ould divil of an aunt o' yours won't darken these doors, or she'll git what she won't like from Biddy Mulcahy. There now! There now! 'Tis into yer bed I'll tuck ye meself, for 'tis worn-out ye are—God ...
— A Little Rebel - A Novel • Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

... in regard to his having been abandoned by his captain, the heavy expenses incurred to maintain the man, and questioning the validity of the British consul's right to protect him. Under the effect of these representations, the prospect began to darken, and Manuel became more discontented, and anxiously awaited ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... These bumpkins must not have a new made food For laughter at our misadventure here, Hence it were wise to send this fellow off As if he in the path of duty treads. Nor must we breathe but that his quick return Will fill expectant hearts with honest joy, Thus may we darken shades ...
— 'A Comedy of Errors' in Seven Acts • Spokeshave (AKA Old Fogy)

... quantity and in quality the fighting yet needed? Fighting is but (as has been well said) a battering out of the mendacities, pretences, and imaginary elements: well battered-out, these, like dust and chaff, fly torrent-wise along the winds, and darken all the sky; but these once gone, there remain the facts and their visible relation to one another, and ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XII. (of XXI.) • Thomas Carlyle

... maturely established been called in Question till in the last Century Paracelsus and some few other sooty Empiricks, rather then (as they are fain to call themselves) Philosophers, having their eyes darken'd, and their Brains troubl'd with the smoke of their own Furnaces, began to rail at the Peripatetick Doctrine, which they were too illiterate to understand, and to tell the credulous World, that they could see but three Ingredients in mixt Bodies; which to gain themselves the repute of Inventors, ...
— The Sceptical Chymist • Robert Boyle

... recalled Birkenhead! There was Thomson, there was my testing-board, the strings of gutta-percha; Harry P—— even battering with the batteries; but where was my darling Annie? Whilst I sat, feet in sand, with Harry alone inside the hut—mats, coats, and wood to darken the window—the others visited the murderous old friar, who is of the order of Scaloppi, and for whom I brought a letter from his superior, ordering him to pay us attention; but he was away from home, gone to Cagliari in a boat with the produce ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson

... racing down the glass and hearing the gutter chattering like a hedgeful of sparrows or tinkling like a bell? Who is there, on the other hand, who has not found, and been perplexed to find, the world going on its way in full song and bloom on a day that has seemed to him to darken all human experience? Burns's reproach to the indifferent earth has often been quoted as an expression of this realisation ...
— The Pleasures of Ignorance • Robert Lynd

... melted in a water bath, like a glue pot, as excessive heat will darken it. Cakes of wax of suitable colors may be had of the supply dealers and are most economical when no great amount of work is done. The same parties supply ...
— Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit • Albert B. Farnham

... that thousands of years have not sufficed for the trees and shrubs to advance from the borders of the forests, from the skirts of the plains either naked or covered with turf, toward the centre, and darken so vast a space with their shade. It is more difficult to explain the origin of bare savannahs, encircled by forests, than to recognize the causes that maintain forests and savannahs within their ancient limits, like continents ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America V2 • Alexander von Humboldt

... thou shalt espy That darken'd on thy closing eye, When the footstep thou shalt hear That thrill'd upon ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war ...
— America First - Patriotic Readings • Various

... dew that used to wet thee, And, white first, grow incarnadined because It lay upon thee where the crimson was,— If dropping now, would darken where ...
— The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886 • Ministry of Education

... Jacqueline. "I am tired this morning, Deb. The sunlight is so strong. I think I'll go darken my room, and ...
— Lewis Rand • Mary Johnston

... allege that the stars shine of {157} themselves, saying that if Venus and Mercury did not shine of themselves, when their light comes between them and the sun they would darken as much of the sun as they could hide from our eye; this is false, because it is proved that a dark body placed against a luminous body is enveloped and altogether covered by the lateral rays of ...
— Thoughts on Art and Life • Leonardo da Vinci

... night again the lovers met, A perilous meeting under the tall pines That darken'd all the northward of her Hall. Him, to her meek and modest bosom prest In agony, she promised that no force, Persuasion, no, nor death could alter her: He, passionately hopefuller, would go, Labor for his own Edith, and return In such a sunlight of prosperity He should not ...
— Enoch Arden, &c. • Alfred Tennyson

... for I loved Esther, if it was only for Mary's sake. Says I, 'Esther, I see what you'll end at with your artificials, and your fly-away veils, and stopping out when honest women are in their beds: you'll be a street-walker, Esther, and then, don't you go to think I'll have you darken my door, though my wife is your sister?' So says she, 'Don't trouble yourself, John, I'll pack up and be off now, for I'll never stay to hear myself called as you call me.' She flushed up like a turkey-cock, and I thought fire would come out of her eyes; ...
— Mary Barton • Elizabeth Gaskell

... separate us. But I loved you even more. I could not give up hope. Not even when you wrote home, the year before last, that you had decided to live abroad. I got that news on the shortest day of the year. I watched the twilight darken into night until the very blackness swam before my eyes in blood-red spots. It was then I made ...
— Hadda Padda • Godmunder Kamban

... friendly fellow-men and women—one's own. These touch one mysteriously, stir deeps that must otherwise slumber, pierce and interpret the world. To refuse this interpretation is to refuse the sun, to darken and deaden all life. . . . I loved Nettie, I loved all who were like her, in the measure that they were like her, in voice, or eyes, or form, or smile. And between my wife and me there was no bitterness that the great goddess, the life-giver, Aphrodite, Queen of the living Seas, ...
— In the Days of the Comet • H. G. Wells

... and environment affect the whole development of the story. Perhaps no more striking illustration of the law of retribution is to be found in her books than in the case of Mrs. Transome. This woman's sin corrupted her own life, and helped to darken ...
— George Eliot; A Critical Study of Her Life, Writings & Philosophy • George Willis Cooke

... was still the main industry, and the landowners almost monopolised political power, an ever growing proportion of the people was being collected in towns; the artisans were congregating in large factories; and the great cloud of coal-smoke, which has never dwindled, was already beginning to darken our skies. The change corresponds to the difference between a fully developed organism possessed of a central brain, with an elaborate nervous system, and some lower form in which the vital processes are still carried on by a number of separate ganglia. The concentration ...
— The English Utilitarians, Volume I. • Leslie Stephen

... draw with chalk upon the stones any and every thing that grew or breathed, heard him on his little bed of hay murmur all manner of timid, pathetic prayers to the spirit of the great Master; watched his gaze darken and his face radiate at the evening glow of sunset or the rosy rising of the dawn; and felt many and many a time the tears of a strange nameless pain and joy, mingled together, fall hotly from the bright young eyes upon his ...
— Stories of Childhood • Various

... to present. But though from the grace of the picture the colors may fade by time, may give by weather, may be spited by chance; yet the other, nor time with her swift wings shall overtake, nor the misty clouds with their lowering may darken, nor chance with ...
— Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth • Lucy Aikin

... mirth The careless season yields Hither-side the flood o' the year and yonder of the neap; Then thank you, thanks again, and twenty light good-byes.— O shrined above the skies, Frown not, clear brow, Darken not, holy eyes! Thou knowest well I know that it is thou! Only to save me from such memories As would unman me quite, Here in this web of strangeness caught And prey to troubled thought Do I devise These foolish shifts and slight; ...
— Gloucester Moors and Other Poems • William Vaughn Moody

... gold so dazzling that the crystalline lenses of our common vision are in danger of dissolution, and we vainly hope for page or dame who will whisper to us the magic word that shall dispel this scene of enchantment. Meanwhile, his sentences, like arrows, darken that sun, himself, and we hasten with bits of smoked glass to view the eclipse. Happily, we have chosen the right medium: the luminousness is destroyed, but the opaqueness remains visible. Entrenched behind a mannerism so adroitly constructed as at once to invite and repel invasion, ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol I, Issue I, January 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various

... said to him, "Fear not that my mother will touch a hair of your head. Trust to me and do not be afraid; for you must know that I possess magical powers, and am able to make cream set on water and to darken the sun. Be of good heart, for by the evening the piece of land will be dug and sown without any one stirring ...
— Stories from Pentamerone • Giambattista Basile

... values few and positive. It is necessary to keep the gray tones pretty distinct to prevent the relation of values being injured, for while the gray tones darken in proportion to the degree of reduction, the blacks cannot, of course, grow blacker. A gray tone which may be light and delicate in the original, will, especially if it be closely knit, darken and thicken in the printing. These rules are most strictly to be observed ...
— Pen Drawing - An Illustrated Treatise • Charles Maginnis

... in vain. Crying, 'Can this be borne?' The consecrated wine-skins creak with scorn; While, leaving tumult there, To quiet idols young and old repair, In places where is light To lighten day—and dark to darken night. ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... see this inclination become a cause of degeneracy in character itself, and make us violate the law of duty. In matters of thought the caprices of "taste" are no doubt an evil, and they must of necessity darken the intelligence; but these same caprices applied to the maxims of the will become really pernicious and infallibly deprave the heart. Yet this is the dangerous extreme to which too refined an aesthetic culture brings us directly we abandon ourselves exclusively ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... countess had succeeded in rising to her seat without awakening her keeper, she made a gesture of childlike joy which revealed the touching naivete of her nature. But the half-formed smile on her burning lips was quickly suppressed; a thought came to darken that pure brow, and her long blue eyes resumed their sad expression. She gave a sigh and again laid her hands, not without precaution, on the fatal conjugal pillow. Then—as if for the first time since her marriage she found herself ...
— The Hated Son • Honore de Balzac

... grace and delight of each other, 100 Behold now and see What profit is given them of thee; What wrath has enkindled with madness of mind Her limbs that were bounden, his face that was blind, To be locked as in wrestle together, and lighten With fire that shall darken thy fire in the sky, Body to body and eye against eye In a war against kind, Till the bloom of her fields and her high hills whiten With the foam of his waves more high. 110 For the sea-marks set to divide ...
— Erechtheus - A Tragedy (New Edition) • Algernon Charles Swinburne

... sit musing on the chequer'd past (A term much darken'd with untimely woes), My thoughts revert to her, for whom still flows The tear, though half disowned; and binding fast Pride's stubborn cheat to my too yielding heart, I say to her, she robb'd me ...
— The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White - With a Memoir by Sir Harris Nicolas • Henry Kirke White

... tears in her eyes, entreated him to go to Miss Vivian, to find out what was this dreadful misunderstanding, which perhaps might only be from his want of hearing, and implore her, in the name of an old woman, not to break her boy's heart and darken his life, as it had ...
— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge

... mind and didn't try to see them or hear them too close. And when I did that, the great light was always there and I was running toward it. But now I have tried to tell, I see it is no more than words. They darken counsel. And I have put it back into my mind, not so much to be thought about as to have at hand. And all my trouble has gone. It has been a long trouble. I am over sixty now. But I am not afraid of anything and I am not in doubt. When I see men suffering, ...
— Old Crow • Alice Brown

... provoked and invited the assault," she replied, smiling. "But I trust, Mr. Wayne, that the cloud which is gathering above our country will not darken the sunshine of your visit at Riverside manor. It is unfortunate that you should have come at an unpropitious moment, when we cannot promise you that perhaps there will not be some cold looks here and there among the townsfolk, to give you a false impression ...
— Fort Lafayette or, Love and Secession • Benjamin Wood

... crumble Thy myriad towers. Farewell, greatness, And gift of the gods. You, Norns, unravel The rope of runes. Darken upwards, Dusk of the gods. Night of annulment, Draw near with thy cloud. I stand in sight Of Siegfried's star. For me he was, And for me he ...
— The Standard Operas (12th edition) • George P. Upton

... dear son, now that approaching disgrace begins to darken the closing years of my life, I can write with all truth and honesty that it is not the terror of the law, it is not the loss of my position in the county, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, which cuts me to the heart; but it is the thought ...
— Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

... upon this screen. The illuminating flash will be made inside the lantern, where the arc light would ordinarily be placed. I have now set a drop of mercury in readiness and put the timing sphere in place, and now if you will look intently at the middle of the screen I will darken the room and let off the splash. (The experiment was repeated four or five times, and the figures seen were like those of Series X.) Of course all that can be shown in this way is the outline, or rather a horizontal section of the splash; but you are able to recognize some of the configurations ...
— The Splash of a Drop • A. M. Worthington

... that kept their Garments clean? But the greatest praise of the good hand of God upon you hath been in this, That amidst the many Mists of Errour and Heresie which have risen from the bottomlesse pit, to bespot the face and darken the glory of the Church, (while the Bride is a making ready for the Lamb) you have held the Trueth, and most piously endeavoured the setling of Christ upon his Throne. We need not remember how zealous you have been in the Cause of God, nor how you have ...
— The Acts Of The General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland

... knell is tolling, From their far hamlets the yeomanry come; As through the storm-clouds the thunder-burst rolling, Circles the beat of the mustering drum. Fast on the soldier's path Darken the waves of wrath,— Long have they gathered and loud shall they fall; Red glares the musket's flash, Sharp rings the rifle's crash, Blazing and ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... seen them myself," snapped the Justice. "They are very conspicuous. And I would warn you, sir, that if you palter with the truth in such little matters you may darken your more important statements with suspicion. Why did ...
— The Night-Born • Jack London

... this said, he moved; And entering led me with him, on the bounds Of the first circle that surrounds the abyss. . . . . . . . . . . We were not far On this side from the summit, when I kenn'd A flame, that o'er the darken'd hemisphere Prevailing shined. Yet we a little space Were distant, not so far but I in part Discover'd that a tribe in honour high That place possess'd. "O thou, who every art And science valuest I who are these that boast Such honour, separate from all the ...
— Song and Legend From the Middle Ages • William D. McClintock and Porter Lander McClintock

... Come closer and hearken: Three fields further on, as they told me down there, When the young moon has set, if the March sky should darken, We might see from the ...
— Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough • William Morris

... "the rude tribes of the North, the fishermen of the river that flows beneath, and the hunters of the forests that darken the mountain tops with verdure! these be thy charge, and their destinies thy care. Nor deem thou, O Star of the sullen beams, that thy duties are less glorious than the duties of thy brethren; for the peasant is ...
— The Pilgrims Of The Rhine • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... Her uncle would not darken Kate's bright hopes, ill-founded though he thought them. To look into those sparkling eyes again was a joy of which he would not deprive himself, ...
— Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter • Frank R. Stockton

... his career would have been incomplete, and the world still left in ignorance of the full compass of his genius. It is indeed worthy of remark, that it was not till his domestic circumstances began to darken around him that his fancy, which had long been idle, again arose upon the wing,—both the Siege of Corinth and Parisina having been produced but a short time before the separation. How conscious he was, too, that the turmoil which followed was the true element ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XVII. No. 469. Saturday January 1, 1831 • Various

... so it was. She took the dreary veil, A hopeless girl! and the bright flush grew pale Upon her cheek: she felt, as summer feels The winds of autumn and the winter chills, That darken his fair suns.—It was away, Feeding on ...
— The Death-Wake - or Lunacy; a Necromaunt in Three Chimeras • Thomas T Stoddart

... like this—except the last, happily it was as yet too far off—Hilary had been slowly and sadly arriving about Ascott for weeks past; and her conversation with him to-night seemed to make them darken down upon her with added gloom. As she went up stairs she set ...
— Mistress and Maid • Dinah Craik (aka: Miss Mulock)

... and stable yard. As Stephen approached it, the thought came to him how little this world's goods avail in times of trouble. One of the big Catherwood boys was in the blue marching regiment that day, and had been told by his father never again to darken his doors. Another was in Clarence Colfax's company of dragoons, and still another had fled ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... day passed in this way, while he sat on the rocks holding the fishing rod and waiting in vain for his luck to turn. At last the day began to darken, and the evening came; still he had caught not a single fish. Drawing up his line for the last time before going home, he found that he had lost his hook without even knowing when he ...
— Japanese Fairy Tales • Yei Theodora Ozaki

... it begun to darken up and look like rain; the heat lightning was squirting around low down in the sky, and the leaves was beginning to shiver—it was going to be pretty ugly, it was easy to see that. So the duke and the king went to overhauling our wigwam, to see what the beds ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... much disquiet therefrom. If she dreams of unlocking a door with a key, she will have a new lover and have over-confidence in him. If she locks a door with a key, she will be successful in selecting a husband. If she gives the key away, she will fail to use judgment in conversation and darken her ...
— 10,000 Dreams Interpreted • Gustavus Hindman Miller

... happy and wrong to be sad? Sir S. says that Jenny his wife could have taught him all that, if he had chosen to learn; but he was grown up then, and so it was too late. The sunshine must be in your blood when you are a child, and then no shadows can ever quite darken the gold—or at least, that is the thought which has come into ...
— The Heather-Moon • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... said, gratefully, kissing the little white hand clasped in his. "I knew you would not be cruel, Marion. You are so heroic and grand—so unlike other girls; you would not darken my solitary life for an absurd scruple—you would not refuse to see me, when the sight of you is the only sunbeam ...
— Marion Arleigh's Penance - Everyday Life Library No. 5 • Charlotte M. Braeme

... all torments, so that with their blood, shed for love of the Blood, they built the walls of Holy Church. Ah, sweet Blood, that dost raise the dead! Thou givest life, thou dost dissolve the shadows that darken the minds of reasonable creatures, and dost give us light! Sweet Blood, thou dost unite those who strive, thou dost clothe the naked, thou dost feed the hungry and give to drink to those who thirst for thee, and with the milk ...
— Letters of Catherine Benincasa • Catherine Benincasa

... disclosing even the sands, and stunted, ooze-sprinkled beds of reeds, that grew at high water mark. Again it was dark, and we drew in our breath with such content as one may, who, while fragments of volcano-hurled rock darken the air, sees a vast mass ploughing the ground immediately at his feet. What to do we knew not —the breakers here, there, everywhere, encompassed us—they roared, and dashed, and flung their hated spray ...
— The Last Man • Mary Shelley

... He came home late one night. His father scolded: 'tis a porter's infirmity to fret at late-comers. Another night he came home later. The scolding became a philippic. Again he did not come home at all. His father ordered him never more to darken his doors. Murger took him at his word, and went to share a friend's bed in another garret. The friend was little better off in worldly goods; he lived in a chamber for which he paid twenty dollars a ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various

... flask, topes a cruel quantity of double-distilled thunder-and-lightning out of it, smiles so grimly as to darken all the stage ...
— Black Beetles in Amber • Ambrose Bierce

... rocks and jagged growths hemmed in by lowering ranges, always looking close, yet never growing any nearer. The moon slanted back toward the west, losing its white radiance, and the gloom of the earlier evening began to creep into the washes and to darken under the mesas. By and by Ladd entered an arroyo, and here the travelers turned and twisted with the meanderings of a dry stream bed. At the head of a canyon they had to take once more to the rougher ground. Always it led down, always ...
— Desert Gold • Zane Grey

... brought together of late to illustrate the working of what is called heredity. But the more we know of these facts, the less we seem able to comprehend the underlying principle. Inheritance is one of those numerous words which by their very simplicity and clearness are so apt to darken our counsel. If a father has blue eyes and the son has blue eyes, what can be clearer than that he inherited them? If the father stammers and the son stammers, who can doubt but that it came by ...
— Chips From A German Workshop, Vol. V. • F. Max Mueller

... chair towards it. In spite of the impatience and preoccupation of a lover, he found himself again and again recurring to the story he had just heard, until the vengeful spirit of the murdered Doctor seemed to darken and possess the house. He was striving to shake off the feeling, when his attention was attracted to stealthy footsteps in the passage. Could it be Maruja? He rose to his feet, with his eye upon the door. The footsteps ...
— Maruja • Bret Harte

... 'Darken'd so, yet shone Above them all the archangel; but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrench'd, and care Sat on his ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... sable wings, All earthly things to darken, The woodland choir grows mute and still, To thy sweet trill to hearken; Though 'gainst thy breast there lies a thorn, And thou woeworn art bleeding, Yet, till the bright day dawns again, Thou singest, ...
— Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century • Edmund O. Jones

... attention; for I see the clouds gathering in the south, and a gloomy, if not a showery, mid-day, promises to darken this beauteous morning. 'Twill not be possible to attend ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... home, our country, at the same time, holds high the character of her institutions, her power, her rapid growth, and her future destiny, in the eyes of all foreign states. One danger only creates hesitation; one doubt only exists, to darken the otherwise unclouded brightness of that aspect which she exhibits to the view and to the admiration of the world. Need I say, that that doubt respects the permanency of our Union? and need I say, that that doubt is now caused, more than ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... a leading question," came the prompt retort. "And I hate lawyers. They darken understanding, and ...
— The Postmaster's Daughter • Louis Tracy

... Then Joan saw Jim Cleve darken the doorway. He looked keen and bold. Upon sight of Joan in her changed attire he gave a ...
— The Border Legion • Zane Grey

... began to decline, the earth to darken, swallows circled past. "It grows late," she said, "late, ...
— Sir Mortimer • Mary Johnston

... with man.—Thou sayest true, Women are as a sin in life: for that The gods have made mankind in double sex. Sin of desiring woman is to be The knowledgeable light within man's soul, Whereby he kills the darken'd ache of being. But shall I leave him there? or shall I leave Woman amid these hungers? Nay: I hold The rages of these fires as a soft clay Obedient to my handling; there shall be Of man desiring, and of woman desired, A single ecstasy divinely formed, Two souls knowing themselves as ...
— Emblems Of Love • Lascelles Abercrombie

... rising sun. But in all its supreme sweetnesses there is a perilous admixture of deceit, which is suspected even at the moment when the senses tingle keenliest. And it must be remembered that this potent faculty can darken as well as brighten. It is the very soul of pain. While the trumpets are blowing in Ambition's ear, it whispers of the grave. It drapes Death in austere solemnities, and surrounds him with a gloomy court of terrors. ...
— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith

... ready to gather. This is usually about October 5 in that locality. The harvesting is begun immediately, as the kernels will become somewhat damaged as to flavor and color if the husks are allowed to darken and decompose. When the nuts have ripened they do not remain in prime condition for harvesting for more than about 10 to 15 days. By this time the husks will have begun to decompose and darken the kernels. Just as soon as the nuts are ripe they are shaken ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943 • Various

... began to darken to night, They would hie along in the fading light, With elf-locked hair and scarlet lips, And small stone knives to slit the skeps, So softly not a bee inside Should hear the woven straw divide: And then with sly and greedy thumbs ...
— Peacock Pie, A Book of Rhymes • Walter de la Mare

... vivacity had now revealed itself as a characteristic of her mode and conversation. Her ankles had long before that grown too sightly to be exhibited. Such is so-called civilization! Her hair seemed to darken before one's eyes. The oval of her face attracted the attention of more than one of my ...
— Tales From Bohemia • Robert Neilson Stephens

... move. It lay as before, a stifling weight upon the hushed earth ... and only seemed to swell and darken. ...
— Dream Tales and Prose Poems • Ivan Turgenev

... catch her eye when a convenient season presented itself for so doing. Nellie, with true appreciation of his kindness, thanked him warmly in her innocent heart, and thought she had never spent such a pleasant evening. There was never a cloud to darken her enjoyment or dim the brightness of her happy face. Mrs. Blake's studied avoidance passed by unnoticed, as also the haughty looks of Winnie's elder sisters; and even Ada Irvine's calm, contemptuous face failed to ...
— Aunt Judith - The Story of a Loving Life • Grace Beaumont

... young mistress is such that nothing but the evidence of my own senses can avail to shake it, I am fain to own circumstances appear fully to warrant them)—should these suspicions not prove unfounded, it is her falsehood alone that will darken the sunshine of my future life. Fleming, or any other coxcomb who had taken advantage of her fickleness, would be equally beneath my notice. But enough of this; where shall I be ...
— Frank Fairlegh - Scenes From The Life Of A Private Pupil • Frank E. Smedley

... woman answered, "O fools and blind! What you once had is that which you have now! When Love and Life first meet, a radiant thing is born, without a shade. When the roads begin to roughen, when the shades begin to darken, when the days are hard, and the nights cold and long—then it begins to change. Love and Life WILL not see it, WILL not know it—till one day they start up suddenly, crying, 'O God! O God! we have lost it! Where is it?' They do not understand ...
— Dreams • Olive Schreiner

... looked at each other, and they rode, and were grim; Charles thought, "That's Sir Lopez. I shall never beat him." All the yells for Sir Lopez seemed to darken the air, They were rushing past Emmy and the White ...
— Right Royal • John Masefield

... I should darken counsel by words without knowledge, I leave the positive penal infliction, which takes effect beyond the precincts of this life, without one word of comment, in the short and solemn words of the Scripture, "Cast ye the unprofitable ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... comes about that what we call religion is frequently a hindrance to the rhythm of the apex-thought. It may be a sentimental consolation. It may be an excuse for cruelty and obscurantism. There is always a danger when it is thus prematurely manifested, that it should darken, distort, deprave and obstruct the movement ...
— The Complex Vision • John Cowper Powys

... rings and the necklace, Darken her eyelids with delicate Art, Heighten the beauty, so youthful and fleckless, By the Gods favoured, oh, Bridegroom thou art! Twine in thy fingers her fingers so slender, Circle together the Mystical Fire, Bridegroom,—a whisper—be ...
— Last Poems • Laurence Hope

... wretched child at breakfast, where she used to give life and cheerfulness to us all. My wife, as before, attempted to ease her heart by reproaches. 'Never,' cried she, 'shall that vilest stain of our family again darken those harmless doors. I will never call her daughter more. No, let the strumpet live with her vile seducer: she may bring us to shame but she shall ...
— The Vicar of Wakefield • Oliver Goldsmith

... of Wilson the player, I should have drawn a portrait very unlike the real person and character of George Dennison. Without all doubt, the greatest advantage acquired in travelling and perusing mankind in the original, is that of dispelling those shameful clouds that darken the faculties of the mind, preventing it from ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... feelings dictated, you would understand what is meant by the weight of a father's anger; but I do not wish the world to know that my daughter has been wasting her affections upon a worthless nigger; that is all that protects you! Now, hear me," he added, fiercely,—"if ever you presume to darken my door again, or attempt to approach my daughter, I will shoot you, as sure as you ...
— The Garies and Their Friends • Frank J. Webb

... me! None of your humbug and cant with me! If I can't get supper where I ought, I'll get it where I can! I'll not darken this door again as sure ...
— Nearly Lost but Dearly Won • Theodore P. Wilson

... She saw his eyes darken; but he merely gave a slight laugh and drew out his cigarette case. "Poor little Paul—poor chap!" He moved toward the fire. ...
— The Custom of the Country • Edith Wharton

... me was far more than master of the ship. He had been my father's friend since long before I was born; and from the days when I first discriminated between the guests at my father's house, I had counted him as also a friend of mine. Never had I dreamed that so sad an hour would darken my first voyage. ...
— The Mutineers • Charles Boardman Hawes

... where the whirling systems darken, And our benumbed conceiving soars!— The drift of pinions, would we hearken, Beats at our own ...
— Among Famous Books • John Kelman

... me, the mother said; I have no fear that my boy will tread In the downward path of sin and shame, And crush my heart and darken his name. It was something to her when that only son From the path of right was early won, And madly cast in the flowing bowl A ...
— Poems • Frances E. W. Harper

... and I saw. Not that she had spoken untruly, but she had implied the truth only in part, I knew my child loved me, and she meant honestly that my pain would rob her of perfect happiness with you,—my pain would form an eclipse strong enough to darken everything. Do you think this knowledge made me glad or proud? Do you know how love, that in the withholding justifies itself, suffers from the pain inflicted? But I said, 'After all, it is as I think; she will thank me for it some day.' I was not altogether selfish, ...
— Other Things Being Equal • Emma Wolf

... Galatea then said, "Acis was the son of Faunus and a Naiad. His father and mother loved him dearly, but their love was not equal to mine. For the beautiful youth attached himself to me alone, and he was just sixteen years old, the down just beginning to darken his cheeks. As much as I sought his society, so much did the Cyclops seek mine; and if you ask me whether my love for Acis or my hatred of Polyphemus was the stronger, I cannot tell you; they were in equal measure. O Venus, how great is thy power! ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... citizens, all marching to the house of worship. It is entirely useless for me to attempt to describe the feelings of Elfonzo and Ambulinia, who were silently watching the movements of the multitude, apparently counting them as then entered the house of God, looking for the last one to darken the door. The impatience and anxiety with which they waited, and the bliss they anticipated on the eventful day, is altogether indescribable. Those that have been so fortunate as to embark in such a noble enterprise know all its realities; and ...
— The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories • Mark Twain

... this, perhaps; and yet a Providential boon, a filling of one's lap with bounties. There would have been great awkwardness in having Aunt so near, but forbidden to darken one's door. Will was very firm there: Auntie was not to be admitted at Vine-Pits on any pretext whatever. But it had all worked out so neatly, without the least friction. The new owner of the Abbey wanted North Ride. He had, however, been very kind about ...
— The Devil's Garden • W. B. Maxwell

... watched the twilight darken into a deeper shadow—that of a gathering thunderstorm. The trees beyond the garden began to sway restlessly about, and then, with a sudden flash, and distant thunder growl, down came the rain in torrents. ...
— Olive - A Novel • Dinah Maria Craik, (AKA Dinah Maria Mulock)

... through the sieve, or it will make it grouty; if it does not run through easily, knock your wooden-spoon against the side of your sieve; put it in a clean stew-pan with the head, and season it by adding to each gallon of soup half a pint of wine; this should be Madeira, or, if you wish to darken the colour of your soup, claret, and two table-spoonfuls of lemon-juice, see No. 407*; let it simmer gently till the meat is tender; this may take from half an hour to an hour: take care it is not over-done; stir it frequently to prevent the meat sticking to the bottom ...
— The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual • William Kitchiner

... darken at these words; she cast a look of annoyance on the young chieftain, and answered, hastily: "Tell you my ...
— The Chouans • Honore de Balzac

... over the desert and over the sea to devour up every green thing in the land, and then to send a wind off the Mediterranean Sea, and drive the locusts away to the eastward; the Lord of light—who could darken, even in that cloudless land, the very sun, whom Pharaoh worshipped as his god and his ancestor; and lastly, the Lord of human life and death—able to kill whom he chose, when he chose, and as he chose. The Lord of the earth and ...
— The Gospel of the Pentateuch • Charles Kingsley

... judging of actions done by ourselves, and those which were performed by others. As long as the child is innocent of any particular vice, he can judge impartially of its nature and demerit; but when the temptation to commit it has really begun to darken his mind, and more particularly when he has at last fallen before it, all the selfish principles of his nature are employed to deceive his better judgment, and to drown or overbear the voice of conscience within him. From this we learn the importance of preparing the mind beforehand, ...
— A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education • James Gall

... surrendered, Gates defeated, and other minor reverses; Tories becoming daring and insolent; the British overrunning South Carolina and Georgia; the Indians upon the borders, bribed and inflamed against the Americans—all tended to increase the gloom and darken the prospect of achieving our independence. But amidst all the obscurity which shrouded the sun of American independence, there was a gallant band of patriots in the mountains of North Carolina and upper South ...
— Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical • C. L. Hunter

... asked us to darken the room. 'Sit behind one another in a circle,' he said, 'and place your hands over the eyes of the ...
— Autobiography of a YOGI • Paramhansa Yogananda

... delights of life. And, indeed, none can know, save they who have felt it, what joy there is in the full rush of language that moves and sways; to feel a crowd respond to the lightest touch; to see the faces brighten or darken at your bidding; to know that the sources of human emotion and human passion gush forth at the word of the speaker as the stream from the riven rock; to feel that the thought which thrills through ...
— Annie Besant - An Autobiography • Annie Besant

... the wind hunts, there shall I find you. In cool gray cloud Where the sun slips through I shall see you, Or where the trees Are silenced, and darken in their branches. Your coming would Loosen, when my thought ...
— Poems New and Old • John Freeman

... human documents. I was chiefly appealed to by his unwillingness to lend himself to a smooth and cultivated view of life, by his determination to record its frustrations and even the hideous forms which darken the day for our human imagination and to ignore no human complications. I believed that his canvases intimated the coming religious and social changes of the Reformation and the peasants' wars, that they were ...
— Twenty Years At Hull House • Jane Addams

... unusually sensitive. He found pearl oysters along the shore, and although no splendid cities as yet appeared, he did not doubt that he had reached Cipango. But his attempts at talking with the amazed natives only served to darken counsel. He understood them to say that Cuba was part of the Asiatic continent, and that there was a king in the neighbourhood who was at war with the Great Khan! So he sent two messengers to seek this refractory potentate,—one of them a converted Jew ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske

... depressing circumstances? I need one very much, and have nothing more suggestive than the old Methodist hymn, "Better days are coming, we'll all go right," which I shout so constantly, as our prospects darken, that it begins ...
— A Confederate Girl's Diary • Sarah Morgan Dawson

... chime. The stores across the street close their doors and darken their show windows. Why not go below and buy the ...
— David Lockwin—The People's Idol • John McGovern

... his hands The fate-presaging parts Aegisthus took, Inspecting: in the entrails was no lobe; The valves and cells the gall containing show Dreadful events to him, that view'd them, near. Gloomy his visage darken'd; but my lord Ask'd whence his sadden'd aspect: He replied— "Stranger, some treachery from abroad I fear; Of mortal men Orestes most I hate, The son of Agamemnon; to my house He is a foe." "Wilt thou," replied my lord, "King of this state, an exile's treachery dread? But that, ...
— Story of Orestes - A Condensation of the Trilogy • Richard G. Moulton

... use for the purpose. A filler must be rubbed well into the wood, the surplus only being removed. The application of a coat of burnt umber stain to the wood before filling is in order, which will darken the wood to the proper depth if you rub off the surplus, showing the grain and giving a golden oak effect. The filling should stand at least a day and night before ...
— Mission Furniture - How to Make It, Part I • H. H. Windsor



Words linked to "Darken" :   change, blind, tarnish, dusk, embrown, stain, dim, maculate, blacken out, sully, lighten, black out, bedim, brighten, dun, cloud, alter, murk, modify, cloud over, shade, overcast, defile, cloud up, shadow, overcloud, benight, shade off



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