benight

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ night.

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -aɪt

Verb

benight (third-person singular simple present benights, present participle benighting, simple past and past participle benighted) (archaic, transitive)

To overtake with night; especially of a traveller, etc.: to be caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination.
- 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. [...] In Three Volumes, volume I, Edinburgh: Printed by James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], OCLC 742335644, page 4:
  The public road, however, was tolerably well-made and safe, so that the prospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger.
To darken.
- 1922 October, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXV: The Oracles”, in Last Poems, London: Grant Richards Ltd., OCLC 31583861, stanza 4, lines 13–14, page 51:
  The King with half the East at heel is marched from lands of morning; / Their fighters drink the rivers up, their shafts benight the air.

Derived terms

Translations

to overtake with night; to be caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination

to darken — See also translations at darken

Spanish: oscurecer (es)

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Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} замръквам (zamrǎkvam)

References

OED 2nd edition 1989

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