in the dark

*in the dark (about someone or something)

Fig. uninformed about someone or something; ignorant about someone or something. (*Typically: be

.) I'm in the dark about who is in charge around here. I can't imagine why they are keeping me in the dark. She's in the dark about how this machine works.

in the dark

1. In secret, in concealment, as in This agreement was concluded in the dark. [Early 1600s]

2. In a state of ignorance, uninformed, as in I was in the dark about their plans. This metaphor often appears in the locution keep someone in the dark. meaning "deliberately keep someone uninformed," as in They kept me in the dark about their plans. [Late 1600s] For an antonym, see in the know.

in the dark

1. In secret: high-level decisions made in the dark.

2. In a state of ignorance; uninformed: kept me in the dark about their plans.

So I dropped on my hands and knees in the little passage, and crept aft in the dark till there warn't but one stateroom betwixt me and the cross-hall of the texas.

Packard didn't take no notice of that, but hung up his lantern on a nail and started towards where I was there in the dark. and motioned Bill to come.

And they questioned him, asking him what had befallen him: and he told them how in the dark wood he had lost his way, and had wandered many days and nights, till, torn and bleeding, he had lain him down to die.

About night we landed at one of them little Missouri towns high up toward Iowa, and had supper at the tavern, and got a room upstairs with a cot and a double bed in it, but I dumped my bag under a deal table in the dark hall while we was moving along it to bed, single file, me last, and the landlord in the lead with a tallow candle.

Of course every boat-hand fixed a gunny sack and put it on like a bonnet, the way they do when they are toting wood, and we got one for Jake, and he slipped down aft with his hand-bag and come tramping forrard just like the rest, and walked ashore with them, and when we see him pass out of the light of the torch-basket and get swallowed up in the dark. we got our breath again and just felt grateful and splendid.

She is a year nearer unto Death; for I did not fail to see that, as she came into the shade, her shadow fell from her, and was swallowed up in the dark water, making its blackness more black.

He walked along that endless street for a long time, almost half an hour, more than once stumbling in the dark on the wooden pavement, but continually looking for something on the right side of the street.

He whirled about in a spasm of terror, leaped forward in the dark. struck his head on the open window, and fell screaming and bleeding to the floor.

I was afraid to push my way in among all this machinery in the dark. and it was only with my last glimpse of light I discovered that my store of matches had run low.