Definition of "darkly"
darkly1
adverb
comparative darklier or more darkly, superlative darkliest or most darkly
With insufficient light for easy discernment or comprehension
Quotations
Quotations
Darkly painted machinery takes a great deal of light out of a shop; the rays seem to be absorbed into the somber pigments.
1906 October 4, “Light Colors for Machine Tools”, in Charles Kirchhoff, Geo[rge] W. Cope, A. I. Findley, editors, The Iron Age, volume LXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: David Williams Company […], page 877, column 1
Cerro Colorado is composed of granitic rocks covered with a dark-colored desert varnish. The Sierra Cucapa are a lighter reddish-brown and lie in the background on the far side of Laguna Salada. They are also covered with a patina of desert varnish but not as darkly as the surface of Cerro Colorado. […] A minor weathering feature of the desert is a thin, shiny, reddish-brown to blackish coating called desert varnish that occurs on some desert rocks.
1998, John Minch, “Geology Roadlog”, in Lowell Lindsay, William G. Hample, editors, Geology and Geothermal Resources of the Imperial and Mexicali Valleys (San Diego Association of Geologists – Annual Field Trip Guides), San Diego, Calif.: San Diego Association of Geologists, pages 30–31
He saw how the candlesticks shone darkly in the vicinity of the diamond flames in Shevele's ears and on her silk dress collar.
2016, Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk, chapter 21, in Anna Clarke, transl., edited by Piotr J. Wróbel and Robert M. Shapiro, Poyln: My Life within Jewish Life in Poland, Sketches and Images, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, page 149
(figuratively) In a manner which retards or prevents discernment; clandestinely
(figuratively) In a manner which is difficult to understand, or which retards or prevents understanding; incomprehensibly
Quotations
Secondly, The Covenant was then revealed more darkly and obſcurely, but now the diſpenſation of it, is more cleare and evident: the light is now marvellous, it is as the Sunne ſhining at noone-day. […] Though it was revealed before, yet it was but darkly, but now it is revealed more clearly ſince the coming of our Saviour Chriſt; […]
1651, Peter Bulkeley [i.e., Peter Bulkley], “The Second Difference, that the One was More Dark, the Other Gives Clearer Light”, in The Gospel-covenant; or, The Covenant of Grace Opened. […], 2nd enlarged and corrected edition, London: Printed by Matthew Simmons, […], page 168
(figuratively) In a manner which produces an inward conviction of future misfortune; ominously
Quotations
But the God I had cried to answer me / When my destiny darkliest frowned, / And He showed me a reef of rocks in the sea, / Whereunto I clung, and there I found / On a coral jag the goblet of gold, / Which else to the lowermost crypt had rolled.
1845, Friedrich Schiller, “The Diver. A Ballad.”, in James Clarence Mangan, transl., Anthologia Germanica. German Anthology: A Series of Translations from the Most Popular of the German Poets. [...] In Two Volumes, volume I, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. and Company; London: Longmans, Brown and Co., page 39
Certain portions of the conversation of the talkative old clerk, which had wearied me at the time, now recurred to my memory with a new significance; and a suspicion crossed my mind darkly, which had not occurred to me while I was in the vestry.
1859 November 26 – 1860 August 25, [William] Wilkie Collins, “Hartright’s Narrative”, in The Woman in White. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, […], published 1860, part II, section IX, page 212, column 1
Pierrot the photographer is utterly mute; always lurking darkly in the background and probing unwanted with his camera, he is the "foreboding presence" in this film , as the television actor was in Domicile conjugal.
1976, James Monaco, “Truffaut: Intimate Politics: L’Enfant sauvage, Les Deux Anglaises et le Continent, Une Belle Fille comme moi, La Nuit américaine”, in The New Wave: Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol, Rohmer, Rivette, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, page 92
(figuratively) In a morbid manner; morbidly, sinisterly
Quotations
There was a laughing Devil in his sneer, / That raised emotions both of rage and fear; / And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, / Hope withering fled—and Mercy sighed farewell!
1814, Lord Byron, “Canto I”, in The Corsair, a Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], stanza IX, page 12, lines 225–228
By visible evidence, this Saturday morning is a comparatively placid one. Earlier in the week a young man had died after being stabbed in a flat, and from the overpass at Archway Road, darkly referred to as “suicide bridge,” another man had jumped to his death.
2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just a Memory?”, in National Geographic, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, archived from the original on 14 June 2018