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Glite Dictionary
🖤 To make dark 🍞 To burn while cooking
to blacken

to blacken

7 3.2
To cook food at high heat so its outside becomes dark and slightly burnt
  • verb
  • /ˈblækən/
translation icon : chamuscar
  • This is supposed to be blackened shrimp.

Examples

  • Like a blackened catfish dinner!

    Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024)

  • The chef learned to blacken the meat using a special blend of spices and high heat.

  • I got a lovely recipe for blackened rat.

    Muppet Treasure Island (1996)

  • Uh, well, our specials today are blackened chicken.

    Office Space (1999)

  • I suggest you have the Blackened Catfish.

    Jungle Fever (1991)

  • He's turned into a 'Blackened Cajun' chicken!

    Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

  • The plate was blackened and then set over embers, the unvarnished surface facing the heat.

    Academic text (1995)

  • This here's my famed blackened catfish.

    The Sapphires (2012)

  • Claude ordered the Two Bruce Lime Chicken, and Jean and Edith chose the blackened bluefish.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • The cooks had wrapped them in silk soaked in spices that blackened over the coals, according to my favorite recipe.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

to burn
vsto blacken
∞ 1.0

To be on fire or damage something with heat

is narrower, focusing on surface darkening rather than full destruction
to black
vsto blacken
120 2.1

To make or become dark in color

is specifically about darkening by burning or intense heat
to sear
vsto blacken
76 6.1

To burn something quickly with very strong heat until it turns brown or black

is about darkening through burning rather than only browning
to darken
vsto blacken
63 3.3

Make or become less bright, for example a room

specifically uses burning to make the surface very dark rather than general dimming
to char
vsto blacken
53 4.6

To burn the surface of something so it becomes black

focuses on making the surface dark by intense cooking or heat
to scorch
vsto blacken
20 3.5

To burn the surface slightly and make a brown mark

is stronger, creating a darker, more charred surface
to charcoal
vsto blacken
6.5

To burn something until it becomes black and hard

is about darkening the surface without always reaching that deep residue

Phrasal Verbs

to blacken out
6.0

To make a place or screen completely dark so no light shows

How Dark

to char
53 4.6
to blacken
7 3.2
to scorch
20 3.5
to brown
50 2.0

Surface Forms

blacken infinitive
blackened past
blackened past participle
blackening present participle
blackens third person singular

Morphology

blacken = black (transparent) = black + en

The sense of charring or scorching is a direct instantiation of 'make black', so the derivation from 'black' + '-en' is clear.

Etymology

Blacken comes from black + -en meaning 'make', and in cooking it gives the picture of burning or charring the outside until it turns dark. So, to blacken food is to cook or burn its surface so it becomes dark or black.