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To improve or relieve by dispelling gloom or removing that which obscures and darkens; to shed light upon; to make cheerful; as, to brighten one's prospects. An ecstasy, which mothers only feel, Plays round my heart and brightens all my sorrow. Philips.

ll continuously or moodily on a subject; to think long and anxiously; to be in a state of gloomy, serious thought; -- usually followed by over or on; as, to brood over misfortunes. Brooding on unprofitable gold. Dryden. Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit. Hawthorne. When w…

To grow cheerful; to become gladsome or joyous; -- usually with up. At sight of thee my gloomy soul cheers up. A. Philips.

To cover with, or as with, a cloak; hence, to hide or conceal. Now glooming sadly, so to cloak her matter. Spenser.

To darken or obscure, as if by hiding or enveloping with a cloud; hence, to render gloomy or sullen. One day too late, I fear me, noble lord, Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth. Shak. Be not disheartened, then, nor cloud those looks. Milton. Nothing clouds men's minds and impairs their honesty like prejudice. M.…

Indicating gloom, anxiety, sullenness, or ill-nature; not open or cheerful. "A cloudy countenance." Shak.

To council summons all his mighty peers, Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, A gloomy consistory. Milton.

y; fog; fogginess; vapor. Night . . . with black air Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom. Milton.

Dejected; gloomy; sorrowful. [Obs.] "Dispel dampy throughts." Haywards.

Foreboding evil; gloomy; jealous; suspicious. More dark and dark our woes. Shak. A deep melancholy took possesion of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature. Macaulay. There is, in every true woman-s heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. W. Irving.…

To cast a gloom upon. With these forced thoughts, I prithee, darken not The mirth of the feast. Shak.

Becoming dark or gloomy; frowing. His honest brows darkling as he looked towards me. Thackeray.

With a dark, gloomy, cruel, or menacing look. Looking darkly at the clerguman. Hawthorne.

The absence of light; blackness; obscurity; gloom. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. Gen. i. 2.

Dark; gloomy; obscure; shaded; cheerless. [Poetic] He brought him through a darksome narrow pass To a broad gate, all built of beaten gold. Spenser.

The most quiet or deathlike time; the period of profoundest repose, inertness, or gloom; as, the dead of winter. When the drum beat at dead of night. Campbell.

To make darker or more intense; to darken; as, the event deepened the prevailing gloom. You must deepen your colors. Peacham.

To cast a gloom upon; to sadden; as, his spirits were depressed.

e vast sand plains of Asia and Africa are destitute and vegetation. A dreary desert and a gloomy waste. Pope.

Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited; hence, gloomy; as, a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house. I will make Jerusalem . . . a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. Jer. ix. 11. And the silvery marish flowers that throng The desolat…