Benight

/bɪˈnaɪt/ · verb

Meaning

(chiefly passive voice) To overtake (a traveller etc) with the darkness of night, especially before shelter is reached..

Definitions by Sense

1. (chiefly passive voice) To overtake (a traveller etc) with the darkness of night, especially before shelter is reached.
2. To darken; to shroud or obscure.
3. To plunge or be overwhelmed in moral or intellectual darkness.

Example Sentences

How far might I have been on my way by this time! I am made to tread thoſe ſteps thrice over, which I needed not to have trod but once: Yea now alſo I am like to be benighted, for the day is almost ſpent.

[H]e struck off the common road, to take the benefit of a nearer cut; and finding himself benighted near a village, took up his lodging at the first inn to which his horse directed him.

The public road, however, was tolerably well-made and safe, so that the prospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger.

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.

Can we whose souls are lighted With Wisdom from on high, Can we to men benighted The lamp of life deny?

Synonyms for benight

Antonyms for benight

Related Words

Word Forms

• benights
• benighting
• benighted
• benighten

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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