BENIGHTED

benighted, dark

(adjective) lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture; “this benighted country”; “benighted ages of barbarism and superstition”; “the dark ages”; “a dark age in the history of education”

benighted, nighted

(adjective) overtaken by night or darkness; “benighted (or nighted) travelers hurrying toward home”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Adjective

benighted (comparative more benighted, superlative most benighted)

(obsolete or poetic) Overtaken by night; especially of a traveller, etc.: caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination.

(obsolete) Plunged into darkness.

(figuratively) Lacking education or knowledge; unenlightened; also, lacking morality; immoral, unscrupulous.

Antonym: unbenighted

(figuratively, obsolete) Difficult to understand; abstruse, obscure.

Usage notes

• Not to be confused with beknighted (“made a knight”).

Verb

benighted

simple past tense and past participle of benight

Anagrams

• benedight, get behind

Source: Wiktionary


BENIGHT

Be*night", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Benighted; p. pr. & vb. n. Benighting.]

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

2. To overtake with night or darkness, especially before the end of a day's journey or task. Some virgin, sure, . . . benighted in these woods. Milton.

3. To involve in moral darkness, or ignorance; to debar from intellectual light. Shall we to men benighted The lamp of life deny Heber.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

24 January 2025

AGITATION

(noun) a state of agitation or turbulent change or development; “the political ferment produced new leadership”; “social unrest”


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Coffee Trivia

According to Guinness World Records, the largest coffee shop is the Al Masaa Café, which has 1,050 seats. The coffee shop was inaugurated in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 13 August 2014.

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