WordWeb Online

1. Overtaken by night or darkness
   "benighted travellers hurrying toward home";
   - nighted
    
2. Lacking enlightenment, knowledge or culture
   "this benighted country"; "benighted ages of barbarism and superstition";
   - dark

1. Overtake with darkness or night
    
2. Envelop with social, intellectual, or moral darkness
   "The benighted peoples of this area"
    
3. Make darker and difficult to perceive by sight
   - bedim [archaic]

See also: unenlightened, unpunctual

Type of: darken, enclose, enfold, envelop, enwrap, overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, sweep over, whelm [archaic], wrap

Encyclopedia: Benighted