benight Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb overtake with darkness or night
  2. verb envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness
    • The benighted peoples of this area
  3. verb make darker and difficult to perceive by sight
    bedim.

WordNet

Be*night" transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Benighted; present participle & verbal noun Benighting
Definitions
  1. To involve in darkness; to shroud with the shades of night; to obscure. Archaic
    The clouds benight the sky. Garth.
  2. To overtake with night or darkness, especially before the end of a day's journey or task.
    Some virgin, sure, . . . benighted in these woods. Milton.
  3. To involve in moral darkness, or ignorance; to debar from intellectual light.
    Shall we to men benighted The lamp of life deny ? Heber.

Webster 1913