Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Dark, misty, and gloomy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dim; obscure; dark.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective rare Affected with darkness or dimness; dark; obscure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Which is influenced by darkness or obscurity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective dark and misty and gloomy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin cālīginōsus, from cālīgō, cālīgin-, darkness.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French caligineux ("misty, obscure"), from Latin cālīginōsus ("misty; dark, obscure").

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Examples

  • “It was a dark and stormy night” might become “It was a caliginous and raving night” or “It was an obscure and disorderly night” – not exactly conveying what the original does.

    Big Brother and Stupid Monkeys « Hyperpat’s HyperDay 2009

  • Yet at virtually no time, amid the clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk that rattles through "Dark of the Moon," is there the sense that such a gap has been spanned.

    'Crowne': A Bad Fit for Hollywood Royalty John Anderson 2011

  • “It was a dark and stormy night” might become “It was a caliginous and raving night” or “It was an obscure and disorderly night” – not exactly conveying what the original does.

    2009 October « Hyperpat’s HyperDay 2009

  • You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk ...

    Rhetorical Figures in Sound: Alliteration 2010

  • Noblemen weren't supposed to be afraid of such things, but that didn't change the fact that the deep, caliginous mist was just plain creepy.

    Mistborn Sanderson_Brandon 2006

  • Yet, as she turned weakly, she saw Camon looming above her in the caliginous room, drunken fury showing in his face.

    Mistborn Sanderson_Brandon 2006

  • Anaxagoras, that the reason of the inequality ariseth from the commixture of things earthy and cold; and that fiery and caliginous matter is jumbled together, whereby the moon is said to be a star of a counterfeit aspect.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • Behind this individual, a corpulent caliginous man, came a following round of guards.

    Pawns and Symbols Majliss Larson 2000

  • 'Clinking, clanking, caliginous collections of junk.'

    Moonwar Bova, Ben, 1932- 1997

  • Ahead, the sun began to emerge from hiding, and it was as caliginous as the misbegotten stars.

    The Howling Stones Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 1997

Comments

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  • ...those dark, fogbound, snowblinding caliginous spells...

    - Malcolm Lowry, October Ferry to Gabriola

    July 30, 2008

  • OZ'S VOICE

    You dare to come to me for a heart, do you?

    You clinking, clanking, clattering

    collection of caliginous....junk!

    June 9, 2010

  • "Then he turned to begin his own caliginous descent down the forest path that pointed to the Outland and to all of its wondrous wonders."

    Under the Harrow by Mark Dunn, p 186

    September 3, 2011