Sadden \Sad"den\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Saddened}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Saddening}.] To make sad. Specifically: (a) To render heavy or cohesive. [Obs.]
Marl is binding, and saddening of land is the great prejudice it doth to clay lands. --Mortimer. (b) To make dull- or sad-colored, as cloth. (c) To make grave or serious; to make melancholy or sorrowful.
Her gloomy presence saddens all the scene. --Pope.
Sadden \Sad"den\, v. i. To become, or be made, sad. --Tennyson.
But Curwood was not a writer to sadden his readers.