Blacken

Quick meaning: Blacken is a verb meaning (transitive, causative) To cause to be or become black.

Meaning

(transitive, causative) To cause to be or become black.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive, ergative) To become black.
2. (transitive, causative) To make dirty.
3. To defame or sully.
4. (transitive) To cook (meat or fish) by coating with pepper, etc., and quickly searing in a hot pan.

Example Sentences

The sky blackened as the storm clouds rolled in.

Iron and coal were the magnets that drew railways to this land of lovely valleys and silent mountains—for such it was a century-and-a-half ago, before man blackened the valleys with the smoke of his forges, scarred the green hills with his shafts and waste-heaps, and drove the salmon from the quiet Rhondda and the murmuring Taff.

Word Forms

• blackens
• blackening
• blackened

Synonyms for blacken

Depending on context, synonyms include black, blackwash, blatch, bletch, denigrate, forswart.

Antonyms for blacken

Common opposites include white, whiten.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include nigrify, scorch, black, char, melanize, tar.

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