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aceæ (Milkweed family). They are succulent plants without leaves, frequently covered with dark tubercles giving them a very grotesque appearance. The odor of the blossoms is like that of carrion.

bird belonging to Sturnus and allied genera. The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is dark brown or greenish black, with a metallic gloss, and spotted with yellowish white. It is a sociable bird, and builds about houses, old towers, etc. Called also stare, and starred. The pied starling of India is Sternopastor con…

an depends on the first steps he makes in the world. Pope. Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. Cowper. I have lately taken steps . . . to relieve the old gentleman's distresses. G. W. Cable.

A narrow pass or passage. He brought him through a darksome narrow strait To a broad gate all built of beaten gold. Spenser. Honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast. Shak.

Large balls or rolls of dark cloud which frequently cover the whole sky, esp. in winter, and give it at times an undulated appearance.

of the strawberry vine. Especially: (a) The root borer (Anarsia lineatella), a very small dark gray moth whose larvæ burrow both in the larger roots and crown, often doing great damage. (b) The crown borer (Tyloderma fragariæ), a small brown weevil whose larva burrows in the crown and kills the plant. -- Strawberry bu…

ed or packed into. With inward arms the dire machine they load, And iron bowels stuff the dark abode. Dryden.

e step. There stumble steeds strong and down go all. Chaucer. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know at what they stumble. Prov. iv. 19.

Duskish; moderately dark; brownish; tawny.

Somewhat obscurely or darkly. [R.] Donne.

To soil; to dirty; to spot; to tarnish; to stain; to darken; -- used literally and figuratively; as, to sully a sword; to sully a person's reputation. Statues sullied yet with sacrilegious smoke. Roscommon. No spots to sully the brightness of this solemnity. Atterbury.

led thiocyanate, and formerly inaccurately sulphocyanide. Ferric sulphocyanate (Chem.), a dark red crystalline substance usually obtained in a blood-red solution, and recognized as a test for ferric iron.

, a sulphacid of tin (more exactly called metasulphostannic acid), which is obtained as a dark brown amorphous substance, H

, a picture taken by the agency of the sun's rays; a photograph. -- Sun spots (Astron.), dark spots that appear on the sun's disk, consisting commonly of a black central portion with a surrounding border of lighter shade, and usually seen only by the telescope, but sometimes by the naked eye. They are very changeable…

Impervious to the rays of the sun. "Darksome yew, sunproof." Marston.

Rough; dark; tempestuous. Now softened into joy the surly storm. Thomson.

sides of; to encircle; as, a wall surrounds the city. But could instead, and ever-during dark Surrounds me. Milton.

Of a dark hue; moderately black; swarthy; tawny. "Swart attendants." Trench. "Swart savage maids." Hawthorne. A nation strange, with visage swart. Spenser.

The quality or state of being swarthy; a dusky or dark complexion; tawniness.

Being of a dark hue or dusky complexion; tawny; swart; as, swarthy faces. "A swarthy Ethiope." Shak. Their swarthy hosts would darken all our plains. Addison.