Library / English Dictionary

DEEPENING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A process of becoming deeper and more profound

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("deepening" is a kind of...):

development; evolution (a process in which something passes by degrees to a different stage (especially a more advanced or mature stage))

Derivation:

deepen (make deeper)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Accumulating and becoming more intense

Example:

the thickening dusk

Synonyms:

deepening; thickening

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

intensifying (increasing in strength or intensity)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

-ing form of the verb deepen

Credits

 Context examples: 

The sun was beginning to sink behind the stables of Mapleton, and the long, sloping plain in front of us was tinged with gold, deepening into rich, ruddy browns where the faded ferns and brambles caught the evening light.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet summer lingered, fading and fainting among her hills, deepening the purple of her valleys, spinning a shroud of haze from waning powers and sated raptures, dying with the calm content of having lived and lived well.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Having completed her task, she rose to draw down the blind, which she had hitherto kept up, by way, I suppose, of making the most of daylight, though dusk was now fast deepening into total obscurity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I had leisure to think, before the kitchen fire, of pretty little Emily's dread of death—which, added to what Mr. Omer had told me, I took to be the cause of her being so unlike herself—and I had leisure, before Peggotty came down, even to think more leniently of the weakness of it: as I sat counting the ticking of the clock, and deepening my sense of the solemn hush around me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In the presence of this old friend and of the tragedy which girt him round, the veil of triviality and affectation had been rent, and I felt all my gratitude towards him deepening for the first time into affection whilst I watched his pale, anxious face, and the eager hope which shone in his eyes as he awaited his friend’s explanation.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)