Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Partial darkness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Partial or near darkness, dimness, twilight.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun partial darkness

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From semi- +‎ darkness

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Examples

  • Squatted around in the semidarkness are the russet figures of the merry, primitive spectators, lit up by the flickering glare of the unsteady light, the children usually naked, and the men having frequently bared the upper parts of their bodies.

    The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir John M. Garvan

  • I stuck my face up to the crack and peered into the semidarkness.

    The Haunted Jessica Verday 2010

  • I previously compared the view of being in space to having lived in semidarkness for several years and having someone turn on the lights.

    Peggy Whitson: A Heroine of Science and Technology | Universe Today 2010

  • The buildings across Fifth Avenue brooded in semidarkness; the snow, now half an inch deep, shone gray on the sidewalk.

    The Curse of the Wendigo William James Henry 2010

  • Well, the view from my helmet, continuing the same analogy, would be like going outside on a sunny, clear day after having lived in semidarkness for years!

    Peggy Whitson: A Heroine of Science and Technology | Universe Today 2010

  • I could feel my face flushing, even in the semidarkness.

    The Haunted Jessica Verday 2010

  • When you return to the living room, Andrea is sitting in the semidarkness, licking her fingers.

    Shopgirls 2010

  • It was a single room, in semidarkness owing to the grime covering the windows sitting high in the walls above her head.

    Unearthly Asylum P. J. Bracegirdle 2010

  • Quanah recalled later that the horses were moving at a gallop, throwing dust high in the air, and that some of them tripped on the prairie-dog holes, which sent men in feathered headdresses and horses rolling over and over in the semidarkness.33 At the settlement they crowded around the buildings, firing their carbines at windows and doors.

    EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON S. C. Gwynne 2010

  • Brooke felt a small wave of anxiety until she heaved open the vaultlike door, stepped inside, and was enveloped in a warm cocoon of semidarkness and low laughter and the subtle but unmistakable scent of marijuana.

    Last Night at Chateau Marmont Lauren Weisberger 2010

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