▪ I. darkling, adv. and a.
(ˈdɑːklɪŋ)
[ME. darke-ling, f. dark a. + -ling, adverbial formative: cf. back-ling, flat-ling, grove-ling, half-ling.]
A. adv. In the dark; in darkness. lit. and fig.
| a 1450 Knt. de la Tour 21 She wolde not come in mennis chaumbres bi night derkelyng withoute candelle. 1580 Sidney Arcadia (1662) 379 He came darkeling into his chamber. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. ii. 86 O wilt thou darkling leaue me? 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Peter ii. 1 Our lamps..at last go out, and leave us darkling. 1667 Milton P.L. iii. 39 The wakeful Bird Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid Tunes her nocturnal Note. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 406 ¶7 Darkling and tir'd we shall the Marshes tread. 1813 Scott Rokeby i. xxvi, Wilfrid is..destined, darkling, to pursue Ambition's maze by Oswald's clue. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 732 He..darkling felt the sculptured ornament. |
B. pres. pple. and adj. [the ending being confounded with the -ing of participles.]
1. Being, taking place, going on, proceeding, etc. in the dark.
| a 1763 Shenstone Upon Riddles in Dodsley Coll. Poems (1782) V. 64 Ye writers..O spare your darkling labours! 1794 J. Hurdis Tears Affect. 58 Which soars aloft In the first glimpse of morning, and performs A darkling anthem at the gates of Heav'n. 1814 Chalmers Evid. Chr. Revel. x. 285 A single word from God..is worth a world of darkling speculations. 1859 G. Meredith R. Feverel xx, Here like darkling nightingales they sit. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. xvi. 286 The mother and son hurried on upon their darkling journey. |
2. Characterized by darkness; lying in darkness; showing itself darkly; darksome, obscure.
| 1739 P. Whitehead Manners 3 A doleful tenant of the darkling Cell. 1855 M. Arnold Balder Dead ii, And by the darkling forest-paths the Gods Follow'd. 1865 Gosse Land & Sea (1874) 20 Another..brook that breaks out from its darkling bed beneath dwarf willows. |
| fig. 1795 G. Wakefield Reply to Age of Reason, Part II, 24 To let the sun of your intellect shine out..for the illumination of us darkling mortals. 1813 Scott Rokeby vi. xiv, Darkling was the sense; the phrase And language those of other days. 1878 White Life in Christ iii. xix. 257 Some darkling sensation of pleasure or pain. |
3. Darkening; obscuring.
| 1884 Lowell Poems, To Holmes, As many poets with their rhymes Oblivion's darkling dust o'erwhelms. |
4. darkling-beetle, a black beetle, Blaps mortisaga, living in dark places, as cellars, etc.
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) I. 335 Mr. Baker..kept a darkling beetle (Blaps mortisaga) alive for three years without food of any kind. 1836–9 Todd Cycl. Anat. II. 863/2 The fifth section..includes..the darkling-beetles. |
▪ II. ˈdarkling, n.1 nonce-wd.
[See -ling.]
A child of darkness; one dark in nature or character.
| 1773 J. Ross Fratricide i. 629 (MS.) I'll catch Th' impetuous darkling [i.e. Cain] at his first recoil, And temporize his hatred to my wish! Ibid. i. 175 The morning..brought his darkling to the field. |
▪ III. ˈdarkling, n.2
[subst. use of darkling a.]
= dark n.
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 13 Jan. 2/3 At darkling of the moon. 1909 H. G. Wells Tono-Bungay iv. i. 443 She carried some rugs for me through the shrubbery in the darkling. 1923 ― Men like Gods i. vii. 112 He..blundered by two couples of lovers who whispered softly in the darkling. 1963 A. Garner Moon of Gomrath xiii. 102 Once Anghalac sounds you may not know peace again, not in the sun's circle nor in the darkling of the world. |