sadden

From Middle English saddenen, equivalent to sad +‎ -en.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsædən/

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• Rhymes: -ædən

sadden (third-person singular simple present saddens, present participle saddening, simple past and past participle saddened)

1. (transitive) To make sad or unhappy.

   It saddens me to think that I might have hurt someone.

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.

2. (intransitive, rare) To become sad or unhappy.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto VIII:

     He saddens, all the magic light
     ⁠Dies off at once from bower and hall,
     ⁠And all the place is dark, and all
     The chambers emptied of delight: […]

   • 1999, Mary Ann Mitchell, Drawn To The Grave‎:

     Hyacinth perfume tickled her senses, making her feel giddy, but she saddened when she saw how uncared for the garden was.

3. (transitive, rare) To darken a color during dyeing.
4. (transitive) To render heavy or cohesive.
   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708, →OCLC:

     Marle's binding and sadning of land being the great Prejudice it doth to Clay-lands.

• dedans, desand, sanded

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈsadːden/

sadden

1. first-person singular past indicative of saddit