Word: darkly Part of Speech: adv Etymology: From Middle English derkly, derkely, derkliche, derkeliche; equivalent to dark + -ly. Compare Old English deorclīċe, a parallel formation. Pronunciation: /ˈdɑːkli/, /ˈdɑɹkli/ 1. With insufficient light for easy discernment or comprehension. Example: I could make out his image darkly. Example: For now we ſee through a glaſſe darkley: but then face to face: now I know in part, but then ſhall I know euen as alſo I am knowen. 2. With a dark appearance. Example: And still when loudliest howls the storm, / And darkliest lowers his native sky, / The king's fierce soul is in that form, / The warrior's spirit threatens nigh! Example: Darkly painted machinery takes a great deal of light out of a shop; the rays seem to be absorbed into the somber pigments. 3. In a manner which is not readily visible or noticeable; inconspicuously. Labels: figuratively Example: Set defenses permitted a coach to plan an attack with scant worry as to where he would find the offensive men. So our Tom Reilly schemed darkly and came up with the attack which pried apart the Brown Bowlers. His scheme was to double team every man in the defensive line by employing one back as an eighth lineman and spreading the enemy further by posting a wingback outside the strong end of an unbalanced line which had five men on this side of center. 4. In a manner which retards or prevents discernment; clandestinely. Labels: figuratively Example: His secret wooing of the Norman lady who was so proud and stately was very dear to him, and the romance of it pleased him even more than the mere material joys he hoped some day to gain from it. Proud as she was, womanlike she at least deigned to listen to him, and his crafty brain schemed darkly to take opportunity as it came, and make her his own by treachery. Example: As for thee, false friend, subtle fox, unfaithful servant, this long time am I grown weary of thee slinking up and down my palace devising darkly things I know not: […] 5. In a manner which is difficult to understand, or which retards or prevents understanding; incomprehensibly. Labels: figuratively Example: Secondly, The Covenant was then revealed more darkly and obſcurely, but now the diſpenſation of it, is more cleare and evident: the light is now marvellous, it is as the Sunne ſhining at noone-day. […] Though it was revealed before, yet it was but darkly, but now it is revealed more clearly ſince the coming of our Saviour Chriſt; […] Example: Strange friend, past, present, and to be, / Loved deeplier, darklier understood; / Behold I dream a dream of good / And mingle all the world with thee. 6. In a manner which tends to produce uncertainty or confusion; bewilderingly. Labels: figuratively Example: Here, as Genevieve sat musing, in apparent slumber, on her situation of peril, and her hope of liberty, her sentinels, who had hitherto walked at a surly distance from her, now chanced to pass nearer; and she heard one of them say, “She sleeps, thou need'st not whisper; -I tell thee it must be done to-night.” “What must be done?” said his companion, “for hitherto thou hast spoken thy purpose darkly.”—“The queen must be removed this night,” said the other. “Here have been missives from the bishop, who, amid the thunders of the siege, found leisure to receive and answer the letters of King Philip, touching the matter of the queen's thraldom, and to send the order thou wottest of, and which must be suddenly obeyed.” 7. In a manner which produces an inward conviction of future misfortune; ominously. Labels: figuratively Example: But the God I had cried to answer me / When my destiny darkliest frowned, / And He showed me a reef of rocks in the sea, / Whereunto I clung, and there I found / On a coral jag the goblet of gold, / Which else to the lowermost crypt had rolled. Example: Certain portions of the conversation of the talkative old clerk, which had wearied me at the time, now recurred to my memory with a new significance; and a suspicion crossed my mind darkly, which had not occurred to me while I was in the vestry. 8. In a morbid manner; morbidly, sinisterly. Labels: figuratively Example: a darkly comic dystopian drama Example: There was a laughing Devil in his sneer, / That raised emotions both of rage and fear; / And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, / Hope withering fled—and Mercy sighed farewell!