| 释义 |
▪ I. dusky, a.|ˈdʌskɪ|
[f. dusk a. (or ? n.) + -y1.
The normal source of an adj. in -y is a n.; but the substantival use of dusk is not known so early as the appearance of dusky, so that the latter would appear to be one of the rare instances of a secondary adj.: cf. the parallel worth, worthy, murk (mirk), murky; also ready.]
1. Somewhat black or dark in colour; dark-coloured; darkish.
Also used to specify animals or plants characterized by this colour, as dusky ant, dusky crane's-bill, dusky duck, dusky grebe, dusky lark, dusky petrel, etc.
1558T. Phaer æneid v. (R.), A showre aboue his head there stoode, all dusky blacke with blew. 1590Greene Never too late (1600) 34 No duskie vapour did bright Phœbus shroude. 1626Bacon Sylva §554 It is not greene, but of a duskie browne Colour. 1763E. Stone in Phil. Trans. LIII. 199 Of a light brown. tinged with a dusky yellow. 1827Pollok Course T. v, Afric's dusky swarms. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. iii. 30 The peaks in front deepened to a dusky neutral tint. 1861Miss Pratt Flower. Pl. II. 36 Dusky Crane's-bill..flowers..of a dingy, purplish black colour. 1865Wood Homes without H. vii. (1868) 125 The Dusky Ant..generally prefers banks with a southern aspect.
2. Somewhat dark or deficient in light; not bright or luminous; dim, obscure.
1580Sidney Ps. xxxiii. ix, Who dwell in duskie place. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, ii. v. 122 Here dyes the duskie Torch of Mortimer, Choakt with Ambition of the meaner sort. 1667Milton P.L. v. 667 Midnight brought on the duskie houre Friendliest to sleep and silence. 1775Romans Hist. Florida 95 As soon as it is dusky they make a fire of dry pitch pine. 1826Scott Woodst. iii, One end of this long and dusky apartment. 1876Davis Polaris Exp. vi. 168 From 4 to 5 in the evening, it is quite dusky.
3. fig. Gloomy, melancholy.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. Induct., Wks. 1856 I. 3 Why looke you so duskie? Ibid. iii. ibid. 41, I..fill a seat In the darke cave of dusky misery. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. 24 That dusky scene of horror, that melancholy prospect. 1762Falconer Shipwr. i. 195 Here no dusky frown prevails.
4. Comb., as dusky-faced, dusky-raftered, dusky-tinted, etc.
1730–46Thomson Autumn 1088 The dusky-mantled lawn. 1825Longfellow Spirit Poetry 9 The..dusky-sandaled Eve. 1848Walsh Aristoph., Clouds i. iii, Dusky-faced clouds.
Hence ˈduskyish a., somewhat dusky.
1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxv, Too far off to see him, if it was pretty duskyish.
Add:[1.] b. Of persons, their complexion, etc.: ethnically dark-skinned, esp. Black or Aboriginal.
In the 19th c. (often in dusky race, dusky tribe) a poetic if somewhat depreciatory commonplace, now chiefly arch.
1827R. Pollok Course of Time v. 253 Afric's dusky swarms..With joy and melody arose and came. 1833E. B. Browning tr. æschylus' Prometheus Bound 50 To a distant clime Thou com'st, a dusky race, that sojourns near The fountain of the Sun, where Niger flows. 1907T. B. Aldrich Writings VIII. viii. 128 Here were the squalor and the glitter of the Orient—the solemn dusky faces that look out on the reader from the pages of the Arabian Nights. 1922Joyce Ulysses 328 The dusky potentate..emphasised the cordial relations existing between Abeakuta and the British Empire. 1961Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Feb. 15/1 The dusky handmaidens appeared carrying the marrowbones, the opening course of every ‘never never’ banquet.
▪ II. † dusky, v. Obs.
[f. dusky a.]
trans. To make or render dusky.
1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 19 It is not so soone dulled or duskied as many other be. |