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

Etymology

Origin of dusky

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

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

Natasha Katz provides the ballet’s choreographic episodes with lighting that casts them in a rainbow of dusky hues, some evoking archaic temple architecture.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026

Green has a toothier texture and fresher flavor; red is saucier with dusky, earthen undertones.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

Three of her dusky, jazz-infused soul songs are in Spotify's Viral Top 50.

From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026

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

From Salon ● Sep. 27, 2025

Twelve yellow candles in bronze candelabras cast a dusky light over the girl.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende

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

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

Miss Jessie M. King's twenty-four drawings of its duskier corners bring out an endearing side of the character of old Glasgow.

From Law and Laughter by George A. (George Alexander) Morton

His back was a dark, dusky, olive-green, with mottlings that were still darker and duskier.

From Forest Neighbors Life Stories of Wild Animals by William Davenport Hulbert

It is bordered on either side by bands of a duskier hue, which probably represent shallow transverse valleys.

From The Moon A Full Description and Map of its Principal Physical Features by Thomas Gwyn Elger

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

From Time ● Nov. 29, 2

Flowers: white water-lilies, camellias, or the darkest, duskiest, damask roses, and none of these in such profusion as to appear conspicuous.-402-

From Social Life or, The Manners and Customs of Polite Society by Maud C. Cooke

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

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

Related Words

• smoky