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# darken

«darken» in Mova's school dictionary: **To become darker or to make something darker** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (darken, darkens, darkened, darkening)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To become darker or to make something darker. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#m1)

2) To become sad, angry or less hopeful, as a face or mood can. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#m2)

3) (idiom) Never darken my door again means never come to my house again. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons on light, a room darkens when you close the curtains. In stories, the sky darkens before a storm and a character's face darkens with anger. In art, you darken a colour by adding black. Phrases: the sky darkened, darken someone's door.

### examples

- The sky darkened before the storm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x1)
- Close the blinds to darken the room for the film. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x2)
- Add a little black to darken the paint. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x3)
- His face darkened when he heard the bad news. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x4)
- The leaves darken in late summer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x5)
- As the sun went down, the forest darkened. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x6)
- At last the day began to darken, and the evening came; still he had caught not a single fish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/#x7)

### note

Regular verb: darkened. The -en ending means to make or become (like brighten, soften, harden). Opposite: brighten, lighten.

### In the corpora

- [Small shakes are normal; artists draw lightly with many strokes from the shoulder and elbow, then darken the line they like.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/12-drawing-lines-shapes-and-drawing-what-you-really-see/17/)
- [Many moths rest still on trees looking like bark, and when factory soot darkened trees, dark moths survived better than pale ones.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/189-masters-of-camouflage/11/)
- [The Rat marches into the darkening wood.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/35-willows-ch3-part3-snow-in-the-wild-wood/0/)
- [Silver darkens, copper goes dull brown and then green, and bronze statues in the park grow green streaks.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/14-tarnish-and-how-metals-change/3/)
- [Weather often warns you before it turns dangerous: tall dark clouds, a darkening sky, a sudden cool wind and distant rumbles.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/15-weather-signs/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «darken» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/darken/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.