dusk
nounEtymology From Middle English dosk, dusk(e) (“dusky”, adj.), from Old English dox (“dark, swarthy”), from Proto-Germanic *duskaz (“dark, smoky”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes-, related to *dʰewh₂- (“smoke, mist, haze”). Cognate to Latin fuscus (“dark, dusky”), Sanskrit धूसर (dhūsara, “dust-colored”), Old Irish donn (“dark”). Related to dye, dust and dun (see these for more).
1
The time after the sun has set but when the sky is still lit by sunlight; the evening twilight period.
- Witnessing the dusk gives a feeling of solace.
- We caught a beautiful view of the dusk.
2
A darkish colour.
- Whose dusk set off the whiteness of the skin.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
3
The condition of being dusky; duskiness
- Synonyms
- evenfall, nightfall, smokefall, vespers, cockshut, crepusculum, dark, dimmity, duckish, dusk, mirkning, night, sun, sundown, sunset
- Derived terms
- adusk, duskdarter, dusk-flat, duskhawk, duskish, duskless, dusklight, duskly, duskness, dusktime, predusk
- Related terms
- early morning, first light, postdawn, morning, midday, afternoon, midnight
- Hypernyms
- twilight
- Hyponyms
- astronomical dusk, civil dusk, nautical dusk