darkle

American  

[dahr-kuhl] / ˈdɑr kəl /

verb (used without object)

darkled, darkling

1. to appear dark; show indistinctly.

2. to grow dark, gloomy, etc.

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darkle British  

/ ˈdɑːkəl /

verb

1. to grow dark; darken

2. (intr) to appear dark or indistinct

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Etymology

Origin of darkle

1790–1800; back formation from darkling, adv. taken as present participle

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

darkle darkled darkling

And the fire-flies wink and darkle, Crowded swarms that soar and sparkle, And in wildering escort gather!

From Faust by Bayard Taylor

A single hobgoblin bassoon croaks ludicrously away, the pixies darkle and flirt and dance their hearts out of them.

From Contemporary American Composers Being a Study of the Music of This Country, Its Present Conditions and Its Future, with Critical Estimates and Biographies of the Principal Living Composers; and an Abundance of Portraits, Fac-simile Musical Autographs, and Compositions by Rupert Hughes

Now sorrowing King and Queen, as midday booms, The hushed Fane enter, while o'er mourners black, Grey soldier, choral white, quick gleams and glooms Of sun and shadow darkle and sparkle back.

From A Celtic Psaltery by Alfred Perceval Graves

In the fitful light darkle and gleam         the swarthy-hued faces around them.

From Legends of the Northwest by Hanford Lennox Gordon

Should It never Curb or cure Aught whatever Those endure Whom It quickens, let them darkle to extinction swift and sure.

From A Cluster of Grapes A Book of Twentieth Century Poetry by Various

Faith darkled in her corner and said not a word.

From Rainbow Valley by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Against the horizon a peasant boy leaned on his staff and darkled against the darkening sky.

From Familiar Spanish Travels by William Dean Howells

Page 206: "darkled": was changed to "darted" in the phrase: "And they darted between the planets..."

From What Will People Say? A novel by Rupert Hughes

We were standing in front of her cottage, that darkled in the trees.

From Tramping on Life An Autobiographical Narrative by Harry Kemp

Their rods and nets hung up, awaiting the return of genial spring; and the churlish stream, abandoned to its wintry mood, darkled and roared savagely under the windows of the Brass Castle.

From The House by the Church-Yard by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

This meditative adagio is the work’s longest movement, and Olafsson stretched its darkling arabesques to more than 10 minutes.

From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2024

They included a number of vivid green and pinkish-orange darkling beetles from China and Laos, and four long-snouted weevils from South Africa.

From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2023

For them, our species stands before a darkling plain that is at once its birthright and its destiny: the universe itself.

From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2023

Enter a species of darkling beetle larvae known as Zophobas morio.

From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2022

Before them, darkling against a pallid sky, the great mountains reared their threatening heads.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

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