sadden

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈsædən/

• Audio (Southern England):

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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.

   Synonyms: deject, depress; see also Thesaurus:sadden

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

   • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (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.

   Synonyms: get a sad on, unhappy; see also Thesaurus:be sad

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto VIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:

     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^[1]:

     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.

   Synonyms: shade, tinge

   • 1903, Society of Dyers and Colourists, Bradford, Eng. (Yorkshire), The Journal, page 129:

     Curve (E) is seen at a glance to represent green saddened down to its fifth shade, and reduced with white to its fourth tint.

4. (transitive) To render heavy, hard, or cohesive; to compress or thicken.

   Synonyms: deepen, thicken

   • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1808, Thomas Batchelor, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Bedford. Drawn Up by Order of the Board of Agriculture, and Internal Improvement. By Thomas Batchelor, Farmer, page 342:

     ... the soil below will, instead of being brought up, be trampled and saddened.

   • 1857, Henry Best, Rural Economy in Yorkshire in 1641: Being the Farming and Account Books of Henry Best, of Elmswell, in the East Riding of the County of York, page 77:

     […] ; the reason why hee left them in the close all the day was, because that hee woulde have the water sattle away, and the growndesomewhat saddened before hee woulde goe to field with them; […]

• sadden up

• dedans, desand, sanded

• (Kautokeino) IPA^(key): /ˈsadːden/

sadden

1. first-person singular past indicative of saddit