Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having low diffused light; dim or shadowy.
- adjective Rather dark in color: synonym: dark.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; dusk.
- adjective Tending to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright.
- adjective Gloomy; sad; melancholy.
- adjective Intellectually clouded.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Dimly lit, as at
dusk (evening). - adjective A shade of color that is rather dark.
- adjective dated
dark-skinned - adjective
ashen , greyish skin coloration - noun A dusky shark.
- noun A dusky dolphin.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective naturally having skin of a dark color
- adjective lighted by or as if by twilight
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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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 Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 16, February, 1859 Various
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The country, England and India alike, are so satisfied with my rule over what I may, perhaps without offence, call our dusky
Punch, Or The London Charivari, Volume 102, July 2, 1892 Various
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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.
In the Mahdi's Grasp George Manville Fenn 1870
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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.
From the Runways, Five Easy Pieces for Fall Christina Binkley 2011
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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.
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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.
Archive 2007-11-01 2007
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I guess it's okay to say "dusky" as a euphemism for "darky."
"Why is Obama so vapid and hesitant and gutless? Why, to put it another way, does he risk going into political history as a dusky Dukakis?" Ann Althouse 2008
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There was a kind of dusky brownish-green parrot, too, which the scientific call a Nestor.
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I sang till it got kind of dusky, and then I left my house for the last time.
sheepdip Diary Entry sheepdip 2003
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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.
roseandivy commented on the word dusky
"her dusky cheek" or "her dusky skin" -- I don't know what it's from, but I love the phrase.
March 19, 2008