sadden

Verb

sadden (third-person singular simple present saddens, present participle saddening, simple past and past participle saddened)

1. (transitive) To make sad or unhappy.
   • It saddens me to think that I might have hurt someone.
   • I was saddened that you felt so little for me.

   Synonyms:

   deject, depress

2. (intransitive, rare) To become sad or unhappy.
   • 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: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto VIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
   • Hyacinth perfume tickled her senses, making her feel giddy, but she saddened when she saw how uncared for the garden was.1999, Mary Ann Mitchell, Drawn To The Grave

   Synonyms:

   get a sad on, unhappy, aggrieve, besorrow, condole, darken, engrieve, erme, gloom, grieve

3. (rare, transitive) To darken a color during dyeing.
   • Curve (E) is seen at a glance to represent green saddened down to its fifth shade, and reduced with white to its fourth tint.1903, Society of Dyers and Colourists, Bradford, Eng. (Yorkshire), The Journal, page 129

   Synonyms:

   shade, tinge

4. (transitive) To render heavy, hard, or cohesive; to compress or thicken.
   • Marle's binding and sadning of land being the great Prejudice it doth to Clay-lands.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
   • ... the soil below will, instead of being brought up, be trampled and saddened.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

   Synonyms:

   deepen, thicken