dark chapter
2
6.3
- noun
:
capítulo oscuro
- For the residents of Bates County, Raab's work is focusing public attention on one of the darkest chapters of their past.
- a dark chapter in history
- one of the dark chapters
- dark chapters of our past
Examples
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We need to help each other through this dark chapter of motherhood.
Blog text (29) -
At a time when the US government talks of food shortages yet is doing nothing to ensure food for its people, but is doing numerous things that seriously increase the threat and leave people more helpless, it is relevant to look again at the famine in Ireland in the 19th century, considered "one of the darkest chapters in world history."
Blog text (10) -
How they would be linked in a dark chapter in American history?
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Personally, I believe that the mobile platform war is going to result in another dark chapter in our history.
Blog text (20) -
We must not become prisoners of an attitude that only takes note of half of the truth, of the dark chapters of our past.
Academic text (1990) -
We're still gathering evidence, but I think it's safe to say that this dark chapter in our community's history is coming to an end.
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Steve donated all of his voluminous research on the book to us, creating at GHS what has been described as the starting point for any future study of this dark chapter in Georgia's history.
Academic text (2011) -
Instead of ending a dark chapter and making a fresh start, the execution has only managed further to widen the gulf between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites.
Blog text (30) -
My last story comes from another dark chapter in human history.
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Thank you, PBS, for bringing attention to this very dark chapter of American history.
How Troubling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a troubling or painful period' follows directly from combining 'dark' (negative/ominous) with 'chapter' (a marked period or phase), so the overall sense is compositionally predictable. This metaphorical use of 'chapter' to mean a period is common in English and in many other languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Dark chapter comes from the simple image of a book: a chapter is a part of a story and a dark chapter suggests a section full of sad or bad events. So, calling a time in life or in history a dark chapter likens it to that sad book section and means 'a troubling or painful period'.