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I UK [dɑː(r)k] / US [dɑrk] adjective
Word forms "dark":
adjective dark comparative darker superlative darkest

1) lacking light

a dark and stormy night

When Maggie woke up, it was still dark.

completely dark:

By this time it was ten o'clock and completely dark.

get/grow dark:

When they left, it was already starting to get dark (= become dark at the end of a day).

go dark (= become suddenly dark):

The room went dark and the cinema screen flickered into life.

2) black, or almost black, in colour

He was dressed in a dark suit with a white shirt.

There were dark patches on the walls where water had soaked through.

She glanced up at the dark clouds above the cliffs.

a) strong and not pale in colour

dark blue/green/red etc:

a dark blue jacket

b) dark hair, eyes, or skin are brown or black in colour

He was tanned and had dark curly hair.

an attractive dark-haired nurse

He looked up at her, his dark eyes strangely bright.

c) if a white person is described as being dark, they have brown or black hair and sometimes skin that is not light in colour

a tall dark man

3) [usually before noun] morally bad, dangerous, or frightening

I always suspected there was a darker side to his character.

4) [usually before noun] a dark time is one in which people feel frightened, unhappy, and without hope

during the darkest days of the war

someone's darkest hour:

This was the President's darkest hour.

5) [usually before noun] a dark look or remark is angry and threatening

6) [usually before noun] dark thoughts are sad because you believe that something bad is going to happen

7) [usually before noun] a dark secret or mystery is kept well hidden, especially because people would not approve if they knew about it

8) [only before noun] a dark place is distant and mysterious because very little information is known about it

in some dark corner of his mind

9) theatre if a theatre is dark, there are no performances there during a particular time

II UK [dɑː(r)k] / US [dɑrk] noun [singular]

the dark a situation in which there is no light, especially because it is night

Timothy is afraid of the dark.

in the dark:

Why are you sitting here in the dark?

•

in the dark (about something) — not knowing very much about something, because other people are keeping it secret from you

We are still very much in the dark about how the money was lost.

keep someone in the dark (about something) (= not tell someone about something because you want to keep it secret from them):

You've kept us totally in the dark about what happened that night.

- after dark

- before dark