dusk / dəsk/ • n. the darker stage of twilight: dusk was falling rapidly | working the land from dawn to dusk. ∎  semidarkness: in the dusk of an Istanbul nightclub.• v. [intr.] poetic/lit. grow dark: [as adj.] (dusking) he saw the lights blaze in the dusking sky. • adj. poetic/lit. shadowy, dim, or dark.

dusk adj. dark-coloured (OE.); sb. darker stage of twilight XVII; vb. grow dark (OE.). The form dusk (XIV) is difficult to account for (cf., however, for the vowel OE. ġeðuxod, ġeðushod darkened); it was preceded by ME. dosk sb., doskin vb. XIII, which are characteristically western forms and repr. OE. dox dark, swarthy (:- *duskaz :- IE. *dhuskos, whence L. fuscus dark, dusky), and its deriv. doxian become dark in colour; rel. to OS. dosan, OHG. tusin darkish (of colour), dull (cf. DUN 1).