go dark

verb

To cease operation or shut down, often for purposes of concealment.

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Meanings

verbgo dark (third-person singular simple present goes dark, present participle going dark, simple past went dark, past participle gone dark)

present singular third person goes dark · participle present going dark · past went dark · participle past gone dark

  1. oftengovernmentTo cease operation or shut down, often for purposes of concealment.
  2. oftengovernmentTo cease communications.

    More systems have gone dark as their comm buoys were destroyed, and millions more batarians, trapped on their planets, sit waiting for the Reapers.

    2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: The Fall of Khar'shan Codex entry
    1 more example

    “But this third cell,” Butler said, “they went dark. No one had heard from them in months. That is, until the bombs started going off last week.”

    2009, Vince Flynn, Pursuit of Honor: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, page 204
Cite this entry
APA

go dark. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20dark

MLA

“go dark.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20dark. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “go dark,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/go%20dark.

Source: go dark on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.