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.
But later that connection was broken (Britten took offence at some small slight) and the gradual but inexorable decline in his fortunes as a conductor set in. This is a tale alternately saddening and exhilarating to read.
As we witness the decline of the U.S. in the global marketplace, it is saddening to see our beleaguered educational system eat its young.
The issues his old activist friends are involved with seem remote, the consumerism of the freed society saddening.
I am probably lacking in sympathy for transexuals and transvestites, too, because I feel as though I have seen enough programmes about these saddening people to last me a lifetime.