benighted

be·night·ed

(bĭ-nī′tĭd)

adj.

1. Overtaken by night or darkness.

2. Being in a state of moral or intellectual darkness; unenlightened.

be·night′ed·ly adv.

be·night′ed·ness n.

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.

benighted

(bɪˈnaɪtɪd)

adj

1. lacking cultural, moral, or intellectual enlightenment; ignorant

2. archaic overtaken by night

beˈnightedly adv

beˈnightedness n

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

be•night•ed

(bɪˈnaɪ tɪd)

adj.

1. intellectually or morally ignorant; unenlightened.

2. overtaken by darkness or night.

[1565–75]

be•night′ed•ly, adv.

be•night′ed•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	benighted - overtaken by night or darkness; "benighted (or nighted) travelers hurrying toward home" nighted unpunctual - not punctual; after the appointed time
	2.	benighted - lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture; "this benighted country"; "benighted ages of barbarism and superstition"; "the dark ages"; "a dark age in the history of education" dark unenlightened - not enlightened; ignorant; "the devices by which unenlightened men preserved the unjust social order"

benighted

adjective uncivilized, crude, primitive, backward, uncultivated, unenlightened the terrible circumstances of that benighted country

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

benighted

adjective

Exhibiting lack of education or knowledge:

backward, ignorant, primitive, unenlightened.

Translations

arretrato ottenebrato

benighted

[bɪˈnaɪtɪd] ADJ (liter) (fig) → ignorante

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

benighted

[bɪˈnaɪtɪd] adj (literary)

(= ignorant) [person] → ignorant(e)

(= unfortunate) → maudit(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

benighted

adj

(fig) person → unbedarft; country → gottverlassen; policy etc → hirnrissig

(lit) → von der Dunkelheit or Nacht überfallen or überrascht

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

This insistence in using the odious word arises from the fact that a particularly benighted landsman must imagine the act of anchoring as a process of throwing something overboard, whereas the anchor ready for its work is already overboard, and is not thrown over, but simply allowed to fall.

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No other subject gave them half the satisfaction, or commanded half the attention; and but few scenes in my life remain so freshly on my memory, or are so pleasurably recalled to my contemplation, as these hours of intercourse with a distant and benighted race in the midst of the desert."

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But I cut short his appeal, and repulsed him so determinately, so decidedly, and with such a mixture of scornful indignation, tempered with cool, dispassionate sorrow and pity for his benighted mind, that he withdrew, astonished, mortified, and discomforted; and, a few days after, I heard that he had departed for London.

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He hoped that God had sent the English across the ocean, Gentiles as they were, to enlighten this benighted portion of his once chosen race.

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And yet, though she knew the locksmith sought to cheer her, and spoke from no conviction of his own, she was glad to hear even this praise of her poor benighted son.

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When he had identified these objects in what benighted mind he had, he said, in a dialect that was just intelligible:

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The time is short, and much remains to be done before you are fit to proclaim the Gospel of Three Dimensions to your blind benighted countrymen in Flatland.

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She gave up trying to understand herself, and the vast armies of the benighted, who follow neither the heart nor the brain, and march to their destiny by catch-words.

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"Yet that is considered an excellent school, I find, and I dare say it would be if the benighted lady did not think it necessary to cram her pupils like Thanks-giving turkeys, instead of feeding them in a natural and wholesome way.

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But while simple folks who are out of the world, or country people with a taste for the genteel, behold these ladies in their seeming glory in public places, or envy them from afar off, persons who are better instructed could inform them that these envied ladies have no more chance of establishing themselves in "society," than the benighted squire's wife in Somersetshire who reads of their doings in the Morning Post.

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Europeans will better understand his point of view than Americans, poor, benighted provincials, who are denied a true appreciation of caste and of the fact that "the king can do no wrong." He did not even have to argue the point that she would be much happier amidst the luxuries of a London apartment, fortified as she would be by both his love and his bank account, than lawfully wed to such a one as her social position warranted.

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Here they found themselves benighted in a strange place, and surrounded by savages bent on pilfering, if not upon open robbery.