Dictionary

benight en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /bɪˈnaɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /bə-/ (General-American)
• /bɪˈnaɪt/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English benyghten, binighten, bynyȝten, equivalent to be- + night.

Meanings

1. (archaic, qualifier:chiefly passive voice, transitive) To overtake (a traveller etc) with the darkness of night, especially before shelter is reached.
   • [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. 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
   • The public road, however, was tolerably well-made and safe, so that the prospect of being benighted brought with it no real danger. 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 4:
   • 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. 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC, page 47:
2. (archaic, transitive) To darken; to shroud or obscure.
   • 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. 1922 October, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XXV: The Oracles”, in Last Poems, London: Grant Richards Ltd., →OCLC, stanza 4, page 51, lines 13–14:
3. (archaic, transitive) To plunge or be overwhelmed in moral or intellectual darkness.
   • Can we whose souls are lighted With Wisdom from on high, Can we to men benighted The lamp of life deny? 1819, Reginald Heber, The Missionary Hymn:

Forms

Deriveds

benighted · benighter · benightment · benighting · benightedness · benightedly

Translations (8)

uk засти́гнути те́мрявою (to overtake with night; to be caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination) · uk затьма́рити (to darken — see also darken) · sh zamračiti (to darken — see also darken) · sh smračiti (to darken — see also darken) · uk укри́ти те́мрявою (to overtake with night; to be caught out by oncoming night before reaching one's destination) · es oscurecer (to darken — see also darken) · de umnachten (to darken — see also darken) · sh zatamniti (to darken — see also darken)