v. Also 7 imbroun. 7–9 imbrown. [f. EN- + BROWN a.; cf. Fr. embrunir, It. imbrunire, which are used in sense 1.]
1. trans. To darken, make dusky. Chiefly poet.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 246. The unpierc’t shade Imbround the noontide Bowrs.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 74. Thy dark pencil, midnight … embrowns the whole.
1750. G. Hughes, Barbados, 23. Deep chasms … are imbrowned with the thick foliage of lofty trees.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, III. ix. No deeper clouds the grove embrown’d.
1814. Cary, Dante’s Inferno, II. 2. The air, Imbrown’d with shadows.
fig. 1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 430. Greek Philosophy, imbrowned with the Fanaticism of Eastern Cant.
2. To make brown. Also (rarely) intr. for refl.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIV. 93. The ready meal before Ulysses lay’d, With flour imbrown’d.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, I. 394. Departing Autumn all embrowns The frequent-bitten fields.
1796. D’Israeli, Lit. Recreation, 211. A painting, which is just embrowned and mellowed by the hand of time.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. II. i. 184. The suns of Italy had but little embrowned his clear and healthful complexion.
1867. Longf., Dante’s Purg., IV. v. 21. What time the grape imbrowns.
fig. a. 1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1858), III. 499. His own uncourtly style is embrowned with the tint of a century old.
