dusky

American  

[duhs-kee] / ˈdʌs ki /

adjective

duskier, duskiest

1. somewhat dark; having little light; dim; shadowy.

2. Older Use: Chiefly Literary. having dark skin.

3. of a dark color.

4. gloomy; sad.

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dusky British  

/ ˈdʌskɪ /

adjective

1. dark in colour; swarthy or dark-skinned

2. dim

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Other Word Forms

• duskiness
  noun
• duskily
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of dusky

First recorded in 1550–60; dusk ² + -y ¹

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Explanation

Something that's dusky is dark or poorly lit, like the dusky walk home from your friend's house at twilight. You can also use this adjective to describe a darker shade of a particular color, like your grandpa's favorite dusky pink roses or the dusky blue of the sky over the ocean just before a storm. Dusky and dusk, or the time just after the sun sets in the evening, come from the Middle English dosc, "obscure, tending to darkness, or shadowy."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dusky duskier duskiest

The three-metre "dusky" shark, a species typically found in tropical climates, amassed a huge following, drawing more than 1.6 million people to the Busan canal for a glimpse.

From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026

"The food in Malaysia was really nice and I got to see these monkeys; they're called dusky leaf monkeys. They're so cheeky – they once stole my banana," he said.

From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026

Even so, the kaleidoscope of tales and vignettes, and the blurring of the banal with the macabre, produces a dusky, dreamlike atmosphere that envelopes one’s thoughts like a fine mist.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

What I was really craving, I realized, was the dusky, spiced intensity of another fall icon: apple butter.

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025

The vein in his forehead swelled, his face was dusky red.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

They’re a scene-stealing duo whose comic relief goes a long way toward softening some of the movie’s harsher angles and brightening some of its duskier corners.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 11, 2019

See the dusky shadows creeping over the Highlands, yonder, and their still duskier shadows in the still water.

From Shoulder-Straps A Novel of New York and the Army, 1862 by Henry Morford

And then the clouds took a duskier red, and the solid mass of castle faded away into nothing.

From The Heart of Denise and Other Tales by S. (Sidney) Levett-Yeats

But the duskier it grew, the more did Pluto’s visage assume an air of satisfaction.

From The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) by Various

I’ve known it of course duskier and dingier. 

From Lady Barbarina The Siege of London, An International Episode and Other Tales by Henry James

The people around Michèle hide their duskiest anxieties deep inside, while all her darkness shimmers on the surface.

From Time ● Nov. 29, 2

Stockport is renowned throughout the entire district as one of the duskiest, smokiest holes, and looks, indeed, especially when viewed from the viaduct, excessively repellent. 

From The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 with a Preface written in 1892 by Florence Kelley

But just within the archway, in its duskiest corner, there sat all day a living picture, a dark and handsome woman, apparently p. 289thirty years old, who was unveiled. 

From The Gypsies by Charles Godfrey Leland

Then with a laugh at her own childishness she "touched wood" to propitiate the jealous fates and ran down stairs to hide herself in the duskiest corner of the veranda.

From Up the Hill and Over by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

The two of us held close together, and chose the duskiest thickets, crawling belly-wise over the little clear patches and avoiding the crown of the ridge like the plague.

From Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan

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Related Words

• smoky

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