tenebrific

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ten·e·brif·ic

(tĕn′ə-brĭf′ĭk)

adj.

1. Serving to obscure or darken.

2. Gloomy; dark.

[Latin tenebrae, darkness + -fic.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tenebrific

(ˌtɛnɪˈbrɪfɪk)

adj

causing darkness

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ten•e•brif•ic

(ˌtɛn əˈbrɪf ɪk)

adj.

producing darkness.

[1640–50; < Latin tenebr(ae) darkness + -i- + -fic]

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Adj.

tenebrific - dark and gloomy; "a tenebrous cave"

tenebrious, tenebrous

dark - devoid of or deficient in light or brightness; shadowed or black; "sitting in a dark corner"; "a dark day"; "dark shadows"; "dark as the inside of a black cat"

tenebrific

adjective

Dark and depressing:

black, bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, desolate, dismal, dreary, gloomy, glum, joyless, somber.

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References in periodicals archive ?

Finally, the text shows a fondness for obscure and archaic words and phrases--for example, scandals "macerated morale"; such an action was not "bootless"; Eisenhower "innervated" the old boys' network; some artists were taken to task for being "tenebrific," and so on.