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Dark vs Blank - What's the difference?

dark | blank |

As an adjective dark

is having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.

As a noun dark

is a complete or (more often) partial absence of light.

As a verb blank is

.

dark

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.
  • :
  • *
  • *:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark , look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • #(lb) .
  • #:
  • #Deprived of sight; blind.
  • #*(John Evelyn) (1620-1706)
  • #*:He was, I think, at this time quite dark , and so had been for some years.
  • (lb) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • *
  • *:If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.
  • Hidden, secret, obscure.
  • *1603-1606 , (William Shakespeare), (King Lear) , i 1
  • *:Meantime we shall express our darker purpose
  • #Not clear to the understanding; not easily through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
  • #*(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • #*:What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
  • #*1594- , (Richard Hooker),
  • #*:What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain.
  • #*(w) (1819-1885)
  • #*:the dark problems of existence
  • # Having racing capability not widely known.
  • Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malign.
  • :
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:Left him at large to his own dark designs.
  • Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature.
  • *(Washington Irving) (1783-1859)
  • *:There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
  • Lacking progress in science or the arts; said of a time period.
  • *Sir (1614-1669)
  • *:The age wherein he lived was dark , but he / Could not want light who taught the world to see.
  • *(Arthur Hallam) (1811-1833)
  • *:The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.
  • With emphasis placed on the unpleasant aspects of life; said of a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction presented in narrative form or a portion of either.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * (relative lack of light) dim, gloomy, see also * (sinister or secret) hidden, secret, sinister, see also * (without morals) malign, sinister, see also * (of colour) deep, see also * (conducive to hopelessness) hopeless, negative, pessimistic * (lacking progress) unenlightened

    Antonyms

    * (relative lack of light) bright, light, lit * (of colour) bright, light, pale

    Derived terms

    * dark energy * dark flow * dark-haired * dark horse * dark matter * dark-skinned

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Here stood he in the dark , his sharp sword out.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=17 citation , passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark , look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • (uncountable) Ignorance.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark .
  • * John Locke
  • Till we perceive by our own understandings, we are as much in the dark , and as void of knowledge, as before.
  • (uncountable) Nightfall.
  • A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
  • * Dryden
  • The lights may serve for a repose to the darks', and the ' darks to the lights.

    Derived terms

    * after dark * all cats are gray in the dark * at dark * bedarken * before dark * Dark Ages * dark blue * dark brown * dark chocolate * dark comedy * Dark Continent * dark current * dark elves * darken * dark energy * darkey * dark fiber * darkfield * dark field * dark figure * darkful * dark glasses * dark horse * dark house * darkish * dark lantern * darkle * dark matter * dark meat * dark nebula * darkness * dark reaction * dark red * darkroom * dark-room * dark room * dark-skinned * dark side * darksome * dark space * dark star * darky * endark * oh dark thirty * pitch-dark * shot in the dark * whistle in the dark

    See also

    * black * shadow

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    blank

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
  • * Milton
  • To the blank moon / Her office they prescribed.
  • Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=December 27 , author=Mike Henson , title=Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Referee Michael Oliver failed to detect a foul in a crowded box and the Canaries escaped down the tunnel with the scoreline still blank .}}
  • (figurative) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.
  • a blank''' desert; a '''blank''' wall; '''blank unconsciousness
  • Absolute; downright; unmixed; sheer.
  • blank terror
  • Without expression.
  • Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.
  • Utterly confounded or discomfited.
  • * Milton
  • Adam astonied stood, and blank .
  • Empty; void; without result; fruitless.
  • a blank day
  • Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration. (rfex)
  • Descendants

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cartridge that is designed to simulate the noise and smoke of real gunfire without actually firing a projectile.
  • An empty space; a void, as on a paper, or in one's memory.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • I cannot write a paper full, I used to do; and yet I will not forgive a blank of half an inch from you.
  • * Hallam
  • From this time there ensues a long blank in the history of French legislation.
  • * George Eliot
  • I was ill. I can't tell how long — it was a blank .
  • A space to be filled in on a form or template.
  • A paper without marks or characters, or with space left for writing; a ballot, form, contract, etc. that has not yet been filled in.
  • * Palfrey
  • The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank .
  • A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated.
  • * Dryden
  • In Fortune's lottery lies / A heap of blanks , like this, for one small prize.
  • (archaic) A kind of base silver money, first coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence.
  • (Nares)
  • (engineering) A piece of metal prepared to be made into something by a further operation, as a coin, screw, nuts.
  • (dominoes) A piece or division of a piece, without spots; as, the double blank"; the six blank." In blank, with an essential portion to be supplied by another; as, to make out a check in blank.
  • The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
  • The point aimed at in a target, marked with a white spot; hence, the object to which anything is directed.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Let me still remain / The true blank of thine eye.
  • Aim; shot; range.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I have stood within the blank of his displeasure / For my free speech.
  • (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
  • Synonyms

    * (sense, bullet that doesn't harm) blank cartridge, blank bullet

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make void; to erase.
  • I blanked out my previous entry.
  • (slang) To ignore.
  • She blanked me for no reason.
  • To prevent from scoring, as in a sporting event.
  • The team was blanked .
  • To become blank.
  • Usage notes

    * Almost any sense of this can occur with (out). See (blank out).

    Derived terms

    * blank canvas * blank check * blank end * blankly * blankness * blank out * blank verse ----