Quranic root
خسف
kh · s · f
A root principle of sinking into depth, disappearing below the surface, or becoming hidden from view.
The central image of going into a depth extends to the earth swallowing something, lunar darkening, sinking or deep water in wells, and figurative states of deficiency, hunger, and abasement.
- Maqāyīs · row 1579
- Mufradāt · row 407
- 1
- Quran-attested forms
- 3
- Quran senses
- 8
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
خَسَفَ
khasafa
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form I
- Form
- I
- Quran occurrences
- 8 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To cause a person, place, or thing to sink into and be swallowed by the earth.
A causative transitive construction, commonly with بِـ; the Quran applies it to people, dwellings, and the earth's swallowing of what is upon it.
- Lane · entry 19098
Selected Quran examples
Quran 17:68word 3
“He will cause to swallow”
Quran 28:81word 1
“Then We caused to swallow up”
To sink into the earth and become swallowed up or hidden within it.
An intransitive or passive-like earth-swallowing construction, describing disappearance below the ground rather than an agent causing it.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Mufradāt · row 407
Selected Quran examples
Quran 28:82word 21
“He would have caused it to swallow us”
To become dark through eclipse or loss of light.
The Quranic occurrence concerns the moon becoming dark; the eclipse sense is distinct from physical sinking.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Mufradāt · row 407
Selected Quran examples
Quran 75:8word 1
“And becomes dark”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 16:45يَخْسِفَAllah will cave
- 17:68يَخْسِفَHe will cause to swallow
- 28:81فَخَسَفْنَاThen We caused to swallow up
- 28:82لَخَسَفَHe would have caused it to swallow us
- 29:40خَسَفْنَاWe caused to swallow
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 22 Classical meanings
خَسَفَ، خَسِيفٌ
Of a well or spring: to sink, collapse, or disappear into the earth, taking its casing or water with it.
Describes a well or spring that goes down into the ground or loses its visible water; related adjectival forms describe such a well or spring.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19106
خَسَفَ العَيْنَ، عَيْنٌ خَسِيفَةٌ
Of the eye: to sink or become depressed in the head, with its dark portion disappearing; transitively, to put out or blind the eye.
A figurative extension of disappearance inward; the evidence includes both intransitive eye descriptions and the transitive construction.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19106
خَسَفَتِ الشَّمْسُ
A solar eclipse, the sun losing some or all of its light.
Classical usage reports differing conventions about whether خُسُوفٌ denotes partial or total loss and whether the term is preferred for the sun or moon.
- Lane · entry 19098
خَسْفٌ
Deficiency, imperfection, fault, or a low or base quality.
Used of accepting or being content with something defective or inferior.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19101
خَسَفَ، خَسِفٌ، خَسْفَةٌ
Leanness or emaciation.
Attested of bodies, people, camels, and sheep or goats; the evidence treats these as instances of the same lexical branch.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19101
- Lane · entry 19104
- Lane · entry 19108
خَسَفَ، خَاسِفٌ
To become altered, especially for the worse, in color, complexion, or aspect.
Applied to a body or person whose appearance has deteriorated.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19108
خَسَفَ الشَّيْءَ
To become pierced or rent, or to make a hole in or rend something.
The intransitive and transitive formulations describe the same rupture or perforation branch.
- Lane · entry 19098
خَسَفَتِ النَّاقَةُ، خَسِيفَةٌ
Of a she-camel: to cease giving milk after an abundant yield, especially in winter; adjectivally, a she-camel characterized by abundant milk.
The evidence records both the abrupt cessation after abundance and a related descriptive use for a milk-rich she-camel.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19106
خَاسِفٌ
A convalescent person, recovering from illness.
Used as an epithet for one who has recovered or is recovering from disease.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19108
خَسَفَ البِئْرَ، خَسِيفٌ
A well dug through rock to reach an abundant, copious, or inexhaustible water source; also the source or place from which well water issues.
The verb may describe piercing rock to reach lasting water. Figuratively, a prolific source, such as a source of poetry, may be described in the same way.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19099
- Lane · entry 19101
- Lane · entry 19106
خَسَفَ الشَّيْءَ
To cut or cut off a thing.
A separately reported figurative or extended transitive use.
- Lane · entry 19098
خَسْفٌ، خَاسِفٌ
To go without food or fodder; to be hungry.
Used of a beast confined without fodder, a person passing the night hungry, or drinking without eating; خَاسِفٌ can mean hungry.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19101
- Lane · entry 19108
سَامَهُ خَسْفًا
To impose a degrading or difficult condition on someone; to humble, abase, or bring abasement upon him.
The idiom includes requiring someone to undertake an unwelcome or difficult affair and leaving him in ignominy.
- Lane · entry 19098
- Lane · entry 19101
خَسْفٌ
A deep place or depression in the ground.
A nominal use referring to depths in the exposed surface of the earth.
- Lane · entry 19101
خَسِيفٌ
A cloud or cloud-bank bearing much water.
The reported lexical description places it as appearing from the western or right-of-the-qiblah quarter.
- Lane · entry 19101
خَسْفٌ
Wrongdoing, injustice, injuriousness, or tyranny.
A further figurative development of the language of abasement and oppressive treatment.
- Lane · entry 19101
بِخُسْفٍ
To leave a matter as it is.
An idiomatic expression: دَعِ الأَمْرَ بِخُسْفٍ.
- Lane · entry 19102
خُسْفٌ
The edible fruit called جَوْز, the walnut.
A dialectal lexical item reported for the people of al-Shihr; the evidence notes a variant form.
- Lane · entry 19102
خَسْفَةٌ، أَخَاسِفُ
A soft or level tract of land.
Usually used in the plural for soft tracts or level expanses of ground.
- Lane · entry 19104
الخَسِيفَانُ
Bad dates; alternatively, a palm tree bearing little fruit whose unripe dates turn bad.
The word is reported with variant vocalizations and an apparent dual form that need not be dual in meaning.
- Lane · entry 19106
خَاسِفٌ
A light, active, brisk, lively, or sprightly boy.
The cited lexical use specifically describes a boy.
- Lane · entry 19108
المُخَسَّفُ
The lion.
A substantival lexical designation with no further constructional restriction supplied.
- Lane · entry 19111
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The Quranic Form I occurrences include both an agentive construction causing something to disappear into the earth and an earth-swallowing or disappearance construction; these are lexical relations rather than merely tense variants.
Classical terminology for eclipse varies concerning whether خُسُوفٌ denotes partial or total loss of light and whether it is preferred for the sun or moon.