dusk
/dʌsk
/noun
1The darker stage of twilight: dusk was falling rapidly working the land from dawn to dusk...
- Summer is also wonderful because of the mid-week fell races that come with the light evenings and go in the Autumn when early dusks reappear.
- You will only placate them until you are finished with the days, the dawns, the dusks, the sky, the moon.
- Lucas sat by the fire staring into the flames as he saw the dusk of night slowly falling.
Synonyms
twilight, nightfall, sunset, sundown, evening, close of day;
dark, darkness, semi-darkness, gathering darkness, gloom, gloominess, murk, murkiness, shades of evening
literary gloaming, eventide, eve, even, evenfall
rare tenebrosity, owl light, crepuscule
1.1 [mass noun] literary Semi-darkness: the dusk of the vestry...
- The island was enveloped in the shades of dusk and the wind from the sea was extremely cold.
verb [no object] literary
Grow dark: (as adjective dusking) he saw the lights blaze in the dusking sky...
- I watch the horizon dusking ripe and remember the darkness of that one film - the scene, that scene, when she collapses.
- The night of the dance dawned - or should I say dusked?
- She gazed into his troubled face, dark hair falling across green eyes, sunlight dusking his pale skin, like fate waking up to morning air.
adjective literary
Shadowy, dim, or dark: the dusk demesnes of night...
- She refused to be startled by the shifting dusk shadows.
- They used the dusk shadows to their advantage by hiding in them.
- From the valley comes a drumbeat of hooves as a tall horse gallops through the dusk shadows, bare but for a slim, young boy.
Origin
Old English dox 'dark, swarthy' and doxian 'darken in colour', of Germanic origin; related to Old High German tusin 'darkish'; compare with dun1 The noun dates from the early 17th century The change in form from -x to -sk occurred in Middle English.