Meanings
- UKobsoleteuncountablethieves' cantThe night.
Ah, Bess, my covess, strike me blind if my sees don't tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans.
1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC3 more examples
I have, by the salomon, a doxy that carries a kinchin mort in her slate at her back, besides my dell and my dainty wild dell, with all whom I'll tumble this next darkmans in the strommel […]
c. 1607–1610 (date written), Thomas Middleton; Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girle. Or Moll Cut-purse. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Archer, […], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page number)Men were men then, and fought each other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans.
1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLCWhite thy fambles, red thy gan / And thy quarrons dainty is. / Couch a hogshead with me then. / In the darkmans clip and kiss.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 3]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLCAntonyms: lightmans
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe night.
Origin
Cite this entry
darkmans. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkmans
“darkmans.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkmans. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “darkmans,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/darkmans.
Source: darkmans on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.