a. [ OE. dusc, dosc, deosc; cf. dial. Sw. duska to drizzle, dusk a slight shower. &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;. ] Tending to darkness or blackness; moderately dark or black; dusky. [ 1913 Webster ]

A pathless desert, dusk with horrid shades. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Imperfect obscurity; a middle degree between light and darkness; twilight; as, the dusk of the evening. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A darkish color. [ 1913 Webster ]

Whose duck set off the whiteness of the skin. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make dusk. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

After the sun is up, that shadow which dusketh the light of the moon must needs be under the earth. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To grow dusk. [ R. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To make dusk or obscure. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Not utterly defaced, but only duskened. Nicolls. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a dusky manner. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being dusky. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Somewhat dusky. “ Duskish smoke.” Spenser. -- Dusk"ish*ly, adv. -- Dusk"ish*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Duskiness. [ R. ] Sir T. Elyot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Partially dark or obscure; not luminous; dusk; as, a dusky valley. [ 1913 Webster ]

Through dusky lane and wrangling mart. Keble. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Tending to blackness in color; partially black; dark-colored; not bright; as, a dusky brown. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

When Jove in dusky clouds involves the sky. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

The figure of that first ancestor invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur. Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Gloomy; sad; melancholy. [ 1913 Webster ]

This dusky scene of horror, this melancholy prospect. Bentley. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Intellectually clouded. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though dusky wits dare scorn astrology. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]