I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a dark cloud (= a black or grey cloud )
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A dark cloud covered the sun.
a dark colour (= more like black than white )
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People tend to wear dark colours to work.
a dark patch
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She noticed two dark patches on the sleeve of his shirt.
a dark tunnel
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He peered uneasily down the dark tunnel at the end of the platform.
a dark/black shadow
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She saw the dark shadow of a man in the doorway.
a dark/terrible secret (= a secret about something bad )
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I’m sure every family has a few dark secrets.
a red/brown/dark etc stain
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There was a brown stain on the bedroom ceiling.
black/dark comedy (= about subjects that are usually sad or serious, especially death )
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The plot contains plenty of black comedy.
black/dark humour (= jokes, funny stories etc about the unpleasant parts of life )
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The tone of the film is light but there are moments of black humour.
bleak/grim/dark (= without anything to make you feel hopeful )
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The theatre is losing money and its future looks bleak.
Dark Ages
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Ed is stuck in the Dark Ages when it comes to his attitudes towards women.
dark brown/pale brown
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His eyes are dark brown.
dark chocolate ( also plain chocolate British English ) (= without milk and with very little sugar )
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strawberries dipped in dark chocolate
dark glasses (= sunglasses )
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She wore a scarf over her head and dark glasses.
dark glasses
dark horse
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In the 1955 golf championship, dark horse Jack Fleck defeated Ben Hogan.
dark matter
dark
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Bright colours may suit you if your complexion is dark.
dark
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He groped his way along the dark passage.
dark
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He’s about six feet tall, with dark hair and blue eyes.
dark/black
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Fireworks burst up into the dark sky.
dark/brown/black
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a girl with beautiful dark skin
dark/deep brown
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dark brown eyes
dark/light grey
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dark grey trousers
dark/light/pale/bright blue
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a dark blue raincoat
dark/light/pale/bright green
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a dark green dress
golden/dark/black etc curls
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a little boy with a tangle of blond curls
pale/dark
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His face suddenly became pale and I thought he was going to faint.
sb's face is dark/red/purple with rage
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His face went purple with rage.
sb’s blonde/dark/grey etc head (= with blonde etc hair )
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I saw my son’s blond head sticking out from the car window.
tall, dark, and handsome
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Sam was tall, dark, and handsome .
the Dark Ages (= the period in European history from 476 AD to about 1000 AD )
the dark side (= bad things relating to something )
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The book is an examination of the dark side of genius.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
so
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Quite taken with them she was, so lovely to look at, him so fair, her so dark .
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It was so dark he could barely make out the tree line on the distant shore.
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It's so dark , yet it's so full of colours, and it's so cool.
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Their skins are of so dark a brown color that they look almost black.
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It was so dark that he could not see who was bending over him.
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But it was eerie in the sense that the trees were so big and dense and it was so dark .
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Out of the rock's foot grew a shadow so dark that it contained all colours.
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I am so dark that a black cat looks illuminated to me.
too
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Perhaps it was too dark for Miriam to notice how Louise was taken aback by this remark, how she blushed.
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I was privately grateful that it was too dark to make out the edge of the precipice.
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It was too dark to see his expression, but Virginia had no doubt it would be the same mocking smile.
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He told police it was too dark to tell whether the woman attempted to get out of the way.
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I tried to peer in but it was getting too dark to see properly.
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The softball game that starts in the morning and finishes when it is too dark to see the ball anymore.
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It was, it was too dark .
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It was too dark to see clearly, but I could hear him staggering.
very
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Wexford switched off the light and for a moment the room seemed very dark .
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They go on very dark in the crease or like a thin film of colored smoke on the lids.
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It was very dark tonight, some of the stars hidden by cloud, but it was very hot.
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The outer half of the belt is dominated by the C-type asteroids, very dark materials that closely resemble carbonaceous meteorites.
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The hold was very dark , but not quite as dark as Willis had expected.
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The blade is as long as the petiole, elliptical, and dark green with very dark nerves.
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It was very dark , I could just make out the path and some trees.
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A cold rain was beginning to fall, the sky to the east was very dark .
■ NOUN
age
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No more Tube, no more of your favourite bands on the telly, another dark age as regards the media.
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But now a dark age was about to begin.
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The dark ages to come will endure not twelve, but thirty thousand years.
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Different to Lefortovo, back in the dark ages from the second floor of the hospital block at Vladimir.
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We must recover that dark age if we wish to understand our archaic fears and to rationalize them.
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The dark ages , as she called them, have covered most of her royal life.
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It was the middle of the dark ages .
chocolate
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Like the people at Upchurch, Kubinski prefers dark chocolate to milk.
cloud
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A dark cloud floated across the moon.
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And those bushy eyebrows that resembled dark clouds on his horizon.-How come?
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Any minute now that dark cloud will open: a short, sharp shower.
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We were bumping along a dirt road when a storm gathered dark clouds above us.
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Sadly, when I was there war was not the only dark cloud looming on the horizon.
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The dark clouds of red ink and layoffs at Apple Computer Inc. may contain a silver lining for consumers.
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The sun was up, the dark clouds disappeared and for a moment she breathed easy.
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It grows to be a small dark cloud of purpose, opaque with life.
corner
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He is not a matey deity who shines a flashlight into some dark corner of his recalcitrant universe on demand.
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I climbed up to the gateway of the bridge and hid in a dark corner .
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A large emerald ring flashed a spot of light into a dark corner of the room.
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White illuminates dark corners and enmasse provides a still breathing space among more lively shades.
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I cried on reading that, quietly, in a dark corner of our hall.
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The passenger was sitting in a dark corner and I could not see his face.
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She sat in a quiet, dark corner listening to the service.
days
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How very nice to find one in these dark days .
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The widow in question is hardly spending dark days adorned in black.
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I still have dark days , but now I have hope and I know that the Lord will keep me safe.
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In 1985, the darkest days of Macintosh, the evangelizing began to pay dividends.
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As the dark days of winter engulfed the Old World the Chaos armies struck.
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Those dark days are behind him and psychologically he is stronger.
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It is often the case that the highest ambitions can be born in the darkest days of defeat.
face
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It would have filled the count's dark face with fury and suspicion.
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In the fading light of the patio, Yolanda can not make out the expression on the dark face .
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His dark face wore the cool, slightly ironic expression that she was getting to know well.
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He was tall, with a thin dark face and cool white hands.
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Benjamin, with his long, dark face , kindly eyes and lawyer's stoop.
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He studies the little dark face and massages a limp hand until the fingers curl around his own.
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In mounting anger she glared up at the taunting dark face , wondering how she could ever have thought his laughter attractive.
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His dark face was framed by raven-black hair so perfectly cut that it barely changed its set as he moved.
glass
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Behind them in a doorway is a man wearing plain clothes and dark glasses .
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For a long time I wore dark glasses .
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Method: Funnel the grapeseed oil into a dark glass bottle, add the essential oils and shake well.
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He is photographed one more time, wearing dark glasses .
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He is walking about Nice with dark glasses and bruises.
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Maybe I should wear dark glasses .
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She does not wear the dark glasses now.
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The dark glasses were the final straw as far as my schoolmates were concerned.
green
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Alternatively, reverse colours, using dark green in feeder 1 and white or pastel colour in feeder 2, as illustrated.
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Midway between sun and stagnant water he blazed in his glorious colors of putrefaction dark green , dark blue, black.
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If the plant grows emersed, the leaves are dark green , stiff, leathery, sappy and very acutely branched.
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In the valleys, you find a darker green of trees and the euphorbias that mimic our cactuses.
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This looks to dark greens remarkably like getting into bed with the enemy.
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In land forms they are wider and a glossy dark green or sometimes olive yellow-green.
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Paint the centres a darker green .
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The uniforms of the soldiers are a very dark green that looks gray, almost black in the firelight.
hair
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Her hands lifted to cradle his head, and hold him against her, her fingers raking through the crisp dark hair .
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The dark hairs of his arm gleamed in the early morning light.
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She was under five feet five inches tall, but strikingly good-looking, with dark hair and eyes and vivacious manners.
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A short, plump man with dark hair walked in behind her.
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The skin tone, the shine on the dark hair , the thick sweep of lashes, were lifelike.
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Tall guy, dark hair , hanging over your window like he hated saying goodbye.
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Her long dark hair brushed like burnished jet.
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All 15 victims were in their teens or early 20s, slim and petite, almost always with long, dark hair .
head
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Damian lifted his dark head to stare at her.
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I look at myself in the mirror now and see the same strands of white streaking across my dark head .
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He lifted his dark head , turning, moving away from her.
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Kissing the dark head beside her, she settled down.
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Her hand clutched his dark head .
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But inside his small, dark head exciting and violent thoughts ran wild.
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Vicky's dark head rose from the bedspread.
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She nudged him as the sleek dark head of a seal bobbed up scant yards from where they were.
night
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During the journey away from his old un-reformed self, the mystic has to enter a dark night of the senses.
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He knew what Trotsky had written, that revolution leads us out of the dark night of the isolated self.
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It was a dark night , and on the beach they had fallen over the dead body of a man.
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In the dark night , a house had gone intact to sea.
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Nader is untroubled by the prospect of helping bring on the dark night of a Bush presidency.
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The snow drifted down, muffling the sounds of the party, the fireworks spluttering, falling damply into the dark night .
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I would have to keep my eyes open, on this dark , dark night .
place
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The room was a small, dark place with almost no furniture.
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She was not a woman afraid of coming home to a dark place .
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And this was certainly a dark place .
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To me, a dark place is the Dark.
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They returned to the bridge, fearful of every dark place - every corner, every door.
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Everyone under-stands that the senate is a dark place , a secret place, a place not unlike a cesspool!
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They were drawn from a deeper and darker place than this whiskery, milky, dungy communion with the cattle.
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Come out of that dark place , Mitchell.
room
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The girl opened a door with a Yale key and they entered a dark room .
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There was food in the dark , yes, mush food in the hush dark room .
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She'd like to be on hand the moment they came out of the dark room .
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Men, women, and children packed into dark rooms that stank like a stable.
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Go to the dark room . 24.
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The small dark room would seem to shrink even tinier.
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Afterwards, I had to lie on a bed in a dark room .
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We stayed in hotels, sharing single beds in small dark rooms .
secret
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The terrible face showed the dark secrets of his life.
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I was fascinated by Elvira because she had no family and because she seemed to know the darkest secrets .
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Dennis Reason, a bank manager with dark secrets .
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Did one of our four women have a dark secret ?
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It leads to death and a scandalous murder inquiry which threatens to expose some dark secrets .
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And the deep, dark secret of my life.
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He and his stupid little friends pretend to have dark secrets , contacts with the paramilitaries.
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The presence of an illegitimate child to that elder brother had been kept a dark secret .
shadow
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They listen from the creosote-dark shadows of hedgerow and wood.
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The voice came from his right, and Miguel noticed there were two guys standing there in an even darker shadow .
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It was Corrary who pointed, and drew their gaze to the dark shadow on the water.
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One day she came to history class with dark shadows under her eyes.
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At first he couldn't see anyone, but suddenly, in the dark shadow of the Monument, he spotted Tina.
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But his style casts a dark shadow over the material, rendering it claustrophobic.
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On the altar there lay a long dark shadow .
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We know also that the dark shadow of the Whitewater fiasco haunts her every endeavor.
side
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This was a night in their minds - a creature from the darker side of man's intellect.
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This psychoanalysis of the Enlightenment obviously concentrated only on its darker side , its errors, aberrations and absurdities.
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The creature from the darker side of man's intellect.
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This, indeed, was the dark side of an economic success which in other respects was undeniably energetic and spectacular.
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She was far from confident that she possessed the moral courage to endure further revelations from that dark side of her moon.
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The dark side gets plenty of air time as it is.
skin
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I have dark skin and hair and am a size 16.
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In the early part of the century, only field laborers had dark skin .
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Bourjois is well known for its vibrant collections and their spring range is no exception - ideal for dark skin .
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But then Coco Chanel came back from a trip all tan and glowing in 1930, and dark skin was in.
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He was in his early thirties with dark skin and a long face from which protruded a sharp, aquiline nose.
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One morning she asked the class why it was that some people had darker skin than others.
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They have dark skin , long noses and wear shabby farmers' smocks.
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I think Janir resembles her more, with his dark skin , curly hair and strong features.
sky
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There was a clear, dark sky .
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Fireworks burst up into the dark sky , then fizz to nothing.
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Black fragments of tombs rose up on either side of the road, silhouetted against the still not quite dark sky .
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Birds circled in the dark sky .
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But we must go further and when men speak of dark skies , we must think of our own bright interior skies.
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The dark sky had forced an eerie light on to the buildings, causing colours to jump out in sharp relief.
suit
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He was wearing a dark suit .
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Gray, a prosperous-looking lawyer in his tasteful dark suits , asked for the presidential apology and brought the survivors to Washington.
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With a smothered exclamation, she rested her face against the smooth material of his dark suit jacket.
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A policeman, a thin man in a dark suit .
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He was photographed by Man Ray in a sharp, dark suit with a striped shirt and white collar.
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Although they were dressed formally in dark suits , both men were wearing heavy rubber boots in deference to winter.
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Martin Landau dressed as another monarch in a dark suit and tie.
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He wore an expensive-looking dark suit , but so creased and rumpled that it hung oddly even from this distance.
wood
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At first she was shy but then she chattered about Nantes, how she missed the dark woods and green fields of Brittany.
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The dark wood was now lit up with lurid flashes of artillery and the firefly sparkle of rifles.....
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The broomstick dipped and then dived towards a dark wood of tall elms and flew over the tops.
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The walls were paneled throughout in a dark wood .
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The floorboards were still bare and the bed was the only furniture in the room except a large dark wood wardrobe.
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All the tables and chairs are of solid dark wood to match the dark stained original wooden beams of the mill.
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Augmenting the club-like atmosphere are the carefully chosen dark wood paneling, beveled stained glass and forest-green carpets.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(dark) circles under your eyes
a shot in the dark
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Let's see if she's at Fiona's house. It's a shot in the dark, but we've got to start looking somewhere.
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My answer to the last question was a complete shot in the dark.
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That was a shot in the dark, but judging from the expression on his face it struck home.
be whistling in the dark
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I'm just whistling in the dark on this one - I could really use some help.
crop of dark hair/blonde curls etc
leap in the dark
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Critics also worry that compassionate conservatism is a leap in the dark without any empirical evidence to back it up.
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Ten minutes later - another leap in the dark - he offered the appointment to Churchill.
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The man who hopes to be Chancellor next week can not surely be preparing a leap in the dark.
the Dark Ages
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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""What do you think of this blouse?'' ""It's a bit dark -- navy doesn't really suit you.''
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dark streets
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Anyone who disobeyed him ran the risk of getting beaten up in a dark alley, or even killed.
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His songs are dark , intelligent, and have a message for our time.
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I shrank back into the darkest corner of the room, and prayed that the soldiers would not see me.
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If you're going to have such dark walls I really think you should have a pale carpet.
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It was a dark night and he was afraid they might get lost if they went across the fields.
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It was a tragedy she had never imagined in her darkest thoughts.
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No, you can't play outside, it's too dark .
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She has beautiful dark brown eyes.
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the dark side of his personality
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Thick curtains covered the windows and the room was very dark .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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But the cracked panes reveal a dark Interior echoing with the cries of children.
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I looked at the guy: dark suit; about thirty-four; heavyset.
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Once again, you navigate dark passageways and hostile environments, killing everything that moves.
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So many dark windows where some one could be watching, and what if a car came along?
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The passageway to the cordoned-off Alsbach canal was wet and dark , and I was glad to have a flashlight.
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The snow drifted down, muffling the sounds of the party, the fireworks spluttering, falling damply into the dark night.
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Wings longer and narrower than Buzzard; tail longer, with similar dark band at tip.
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With her piercing sharp dark eyes, she presented a formidable impression.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
growing
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It was growing dark , for the clocks had been turned back weeks ago and the nights were drawing in.
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It was growing dark , but Gabriel and the other men could not avoid noticing how Boldwood looked at her.
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It was growing dark , the moon hung between the trees in a misty haze as though unwilling to appear at all.
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The September evening was already growing dark .
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Outside it was growing dark , only a red glow showed where the sun had set.
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But we were so late it was growing dark .
■ NOUN
face
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His face dark with temper, he parked the car.
pitch
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It was pitch dark everywhere, and the whirr of the ceiling fan seemed to fill the silent bedroom.
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It was pitch dark where I was standing, and silent as a tomb.
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He developed the photographs himself, blundering round the bathroom in the pitch dark .
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It was pitch dark , but a man could follow the path by the pale line of sky between the branches.
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It was pitch dark inside the attic.
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In the freezing cold and pitch dark , families were driven to clinging to the roof.
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I set off at 5 am but those Sussex lanes are pitch dark , and hilly!
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Inside the coffin it is pitch dark and fouled with faeces because women confined there are refused access to a toilet.
■ VERB
keep
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Then she wondered suddenly if Tom Russell had known she would find it intimidating and had deliberately kept her in the dark .
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The owner said that he would rather keep the theatre dark than offer such rubbish.
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He would keep Auden dark , his true nature masked from Ebert.
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It wasn't right for a man in his position to be kept in the dark .
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And people, leftover people like - like grubs that've been kept in the dark .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(dark) circles under your eyes
a shot in the dark
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Let's see if she's at Fiona's house. It's a shot in the dark, but we've got to start looking somewhere.
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My answer to the last question was a complete shot in the dark.
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That was a shot in the dark, but judging from the expression on his face it struck home.
be whistling in the dark
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I'm just whistling in the dark on this one - I could really use some help.
crop of dark hair/blonde curls etc
leap in the dark
▪
Critics also worry that compassionate conservatism is a leap in the dark without any empirical evidence to back it up.
▪
Ten minutes later - another leap in the dark - he offered the appointment to Churchill.
▪
The man who hopes to be Chancellor next week can not surely be preparing a leap in the dark.
light/fair/dark complected
the Dark Ages
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And she gets up in the night and sits by the telephone in the hall in the dark .
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He had the impression that there wasn't much left of the still figure in the dark .
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Many more settlements, houses and trailers, side roads disappearing into the dark , than there were years ago.
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There's nowhere to hang in the dark .