Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Characterized by little or inadequate light; shadowy.
- adj. Rather dark in color: dusky skin. See Synonyms at dark.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Rather dark; obscure; not luminous; dim: as, a dusky valley.
- Rather black; dark-colored; fuscous; not light or bright: as, a dusky brown; the dusky wings of some insects.
- Hence, figuratively, gloomy; sad.
Wiktionary
- adj. Dimly lit, as at dusk (evening).
- adj. A shade of color that is rather dark.
- adj. dated dark-skinned
- adj. ashen, greyish skin coloration
- n. A dusky shark.
- n. A dusky dolphin.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; dusk.
- adj. Tending to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright.
- adj. Gloomy; sad; melancholy.
- adj. Intellectually clouded.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. naturally having skin of a dark color
- adj. lighted by or as if by twilight
Examples
“Rather call the dusky and dark-haired Twilight, whose pensive face is limned against the western hills, by the name of that fierce and fervid Noon that stands erect under the hot zenith, instinct with the red blood of a thousand summers, casting her glittering tresses abroad upon the south-wind, and holding in her hands the all-unfolded rose of life.”
“The country, England and India alike, are so satisfied with my rule over what I may, perhaps without offence, call our dusky”
“They seemed to have the contrary effect, making him irritable; and though he made up his mind to watch the stars peer out through the opalescent sky -- he did not call it opalescent, for the simple word dusky took its place -- even their soft light had no effect upon him, and to come to the result at once the would-be sleeper gave it up at last for a bad job.”
“But the whole season has been filled with earthy colors, such as dusky blues at Diane von Furstenberg and Michael Kors 's mauves and dove grays.”
The Wall Street Journal: From the Runways, Five Easy Pieces for Fall
“He picked up the term from African-American ( "dusky" he called them) stable hands at the Fair Grounds racetrack in New Orleans, probably on January 14, 1920.”
“I guess it's okay to say "dusky" as a euphemism for "darky.”
“There was a kind of dusky brownish-green parrot, too, which the scientific call a Nestor.”
“I sang till it got kind of dusky, and then I left my house for the last time.”
“The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the square of the cloisters; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in the centre, and lighting up an angle of the vaulted passage with a kind of dusky splendor.”
“It seemed, partly because the ceiling was low, to be very spacious; the walls and ceiling were of a kind of dusky amber hue; a golden brown was everywhere the prevailing tint.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dusky’.
-
Mobying Along
looks like there's not an open Moby Dick list. So now there is.
hypos, Manhattoes, circumambulate, mole, grapnels, bowsprit, asphaltic, mazy, tranced, cataract, ungraspable, judgmatically and 227 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Colour & light
Beautiful words for the things we sense.
opaline, verdigris, opalescent, lustrous, nacreous, gloaming, lambent, lucent, darkling, glister, lapis, sapphire and 24 more...
-
Dark (in color)
Adjectives meaning dark (in color)
fuscous, obfuscous, swarthy, aphotic, somber, sombre, tenebrous, dark, deep, umbral, dusky
-
capitalcreative's Words
deviltry, visceral, cassanova, assuage, genesis, hot minute, osmosis, wistful, sublime, loathe, farfetched, newfangled and 283 more...
-
favored
visceral, twinkle, whalebone, incandescent, carousel, entangle, brevity, desolate, twirl, deltoid, graceless, tryst and 94 more...
-
ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
-
Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
-
kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
-
caspermilktoast's Words
frenetic, farrago, fandango, ensemble, assay, emulsion, taut, winnow, ridonkulous, ginormous, frisson, idee fixe and 181 more...
-
just words.
coquette, solecism, peripherally, recrudescence, viscid, turpitude, sententious, light-heeled, interminably, unflappable, palpably, solicitous and 215 more...
-
Some Words I Love to Use
arcology, strumpet, crux, confected, pedant, bluestocking, cogitation, incensed, lovecraftian, cygnet, dactyl, adytum and 539 more...
-
roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
-
Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
-
fragile/lovely words
incandescent, scintillating, sublime, stellar, fragile, bones, illuminate, luscious, celestial, crepuscular, penumbra, wanderlust and 111 more...
-
good words
words that are mostly fun to say or just lovely
undulate, voluptuous, whimsy, parse, dank, cerulean, peen, traipsing, listless, coup de grace, reconnoiter, mercurial and 499 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dusky.
roseandivy "her dusky cheek" or "her dusky skin" -- I don't know what it's from, but I love the phrase. Mar 19, 2008