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

the bottomless pit. Ye powers and spirits of this nethermost abyss. Milton. The throne is darkness, in the abyss of light. Dryden.

The Evil Principle or Being of the ancient Persians; the Prince of Darkness as opposer to Ormuzd, the King of Light.

esemblance or similitude; similar; without difference. [Now used only predicatively.] The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. Ps. cxxxix. 12.

To give light to, as a beacon; to light up; to illumine. That beacons the darkness of heaven. Campbell.

To act as a friend to; to favor; to aid, benefit, or countenance. By the darkness befriended. Longfellow.

To involve in darkness; to shroud with the shades of night; to obscure. [Archaic] The clouds benight the sky. Garth.

In a less literal sense: Enveloped or shrouded in darkness; very dark or gloomy; as, a black night; the heavens black with clouds. I spy a black, suspicious, threatening cloud. Shak.

To darken; to obscure to the eye or understanding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. Dryden. The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stillingfleet.

To open up. to be scattered; t be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking. At length the darkness begins to break. Macawlay.

One who, or that which, buries. Till the buriers have buried it. Ezek. xxxix. 15. And darkness be the burier of the dead. Shak.

Darkness. [R.] G. Eliot.

Affected with darkness or dimness; dark; obscure. [R.] Blount. The caliginous regions of the air. Hallywell. -- Ca*lig"i*nous*ly, adv. -- Ca*lig"i*nous*ness, n.

ifed name. If you would but call me Rosalind. Shak. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. Gen. i. 5.

evotion; as, a Christmas or Easter carol. Heard a carol, mournful, holy. Tennyson. In the darkness sing your carol of high praise. Keble.

etters, or secures, as a chain; a bond; as, the chains of habit. Driven down To chains of darkness and the undying worm. Milton.

, a fabulous people, said to have lived, in very ancient times, in profound and perpetual darkness.

uced to seek communion and fellowship with others. Hooker. What communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. vi. 14. Bare communion with a good church can never alone make a good man. South.

Sexual lust; morbid carnal passion. Concupiscence like a pestilence walketh in darkness. Horne.

of condemning. This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather light, because their deeds were evil. John iii. 19.