blacken, v.
(ˈblæk(ə)n)
[ME. blakne(n, blackone(n f. black a. + -en.]
1. intr. To become or grow black. lit. and fig.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 17430 To blacken þan bigan þair brous. c 1400 Destr. Troy. xxii. 9134 Blaknet with bleryng all hir ble qwite. Ibid. xxvi. 10706 All blackonet his blode, & his ble chaunget. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 17 ¶2, I..believe that rain will fall when the air blackens. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 193 It may blacken into cynicism. |
2. trans. To make black or dark. lit. and fig.
| 1552 Huloet, To make blacke, or blacken, denigro. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Jas. V, Wks. (1711) 85 Calumnies, tho' they do not burn, yet blacken. 1660 Trial Regic. 45 To draw up that Impeachment so, as to Blacken Him. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 518 ¶2 You ought to have blackened the edges of a paper which brought us so ill news. 1863 Kingsley Water Bab. vi, The Birds..blackening all the air. |
Hence ˈblackened ppl. a., ˈblackening vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| c 1400 Apol. Loll. 55 Corrumping cold and blakning. 1513 Douglas æneis iii. i. 122 Crownit..with the bleknyt cipres deidlie bewis. 1660 Trial Regic. 55 The Blackning of the King. 1725 Pope Odyss. vii. 161 Some dry the black'ning clusters in the sun. 1793 Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. xxix. 144 Smellfungus views all objects through a blackened glass. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. xxiv, The blight and blackening which it leaves behind. 1842 Miall Nonconf. II. 249 More than they fear a blackened reputation. |