benight verb trans. [bɪ'nʌɪt] LME.
[from BE- 4 + NIGHT noun.]
1. Cover, hide, or involve in the darkness of night. Usu. (and arch. exc.) in pass. LME.
■ De Quincey The tourists were benighted in a forest.

2. fig. Involve in intellectual or moral darkness; darken, cloud. Freq. in pass. E17.
■ W. Davenant Now jealousie no more benights her face.
■ J. Wilson What men..call Religion, now benighting half the earth.
■ Isaiah Berlin The mass of the proletarians themselves were too benighted to grasp the role which history had called on them to play.

■ benightedness noun the state of being benighted M19.

■ benightment noun (rare) M17.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲