blacken

From Middle English blaknen, blakkenen, equivalent to black +‎ -en (verbal suffix).

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• Rhymes: -ækən

blacken (third-person singular simple present blackens, present participle blackening, simple past and past participle blackened)

1. (transitive) To cause to be or become black.
2. (intransitive) To become black.

   The sky blackened as the storm clouds rolled in.

3. To make dirty.
4. To defame or sully.

   Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men. — Napoleon Bonaparte

5. To cook (meat or fish) by coating with pepper, etc., and quickly searing in a hot pan.

• (make black): black, denigrate
• (make dirty): dirty, soil
• (defame): defame, denigrate, sully, taint, tarnish