Adjacent Words

Obscure definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OBSCU'RE, a. [L. obscurus.]
1. Dark; destitute of light.
Whoso curseth his father or mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Proverbs 20.
2. Living in darkness; as the obscure bird.
3. Not easily understood; not obviously intelligible; abstruse; as an obscure passage in a writing.
4. Not much known or observed; retired; remote from observation; as an obscure retreat.
5. Not noted; unknown; unnoticed; humble; mean; as an obscure person; a person of obscure birth.
6. Not easily legible; as an obscure inscription.
7. Not clear, full or distinct; imperfect; as an obscure view of remote objects.
OBSCU'RE, v.t. [L. obscuro.]
1. To darken; to make dark. The shadow of the earth obscures the moon, and the body of the moon obscures the sun, in an eclipse.
2. To cloud; to make partially dark. Thick clouds obscure the day.
3. To hide from the view; as, clouds obscure the sun.
4. To make less visible.
Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love, and I should be obscured.
5. To make less legible; as, time has obscured the writing.
6. To make less intelligible.
There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by the writings of the learned as this.
7. To make less glorious, beautiful or illustrious.
- And see'st not sin obscures thy godlike frame?
8. To conceal; to make unknown.
9. To tarnish; as, to obscure brightness.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not clearly understood or expressed; "an obscure turn of phrase"; "an impulse to go off and fight certain obscure battles of his own spirit"-Anatole Broyard; "their descriptions of human behavior become vague, dull, and unclear"- P.A.Sorokin; "vague...forms of speech...have so long passed for mysteries of science"- John Locke [syn: obscure, vague]
2: marked by difficulty of style or expression; "much that was dark is now quite clear to me"; "those who do not appreciate Kafka's work say his style is obscure" [syn: dark, obscure]
3: difficult to find; "hidden valleys"; "a hidden cave"; "an obscure retreat" [syn: hidden, obscure]
4: not famous or acclaimed; "an obscure family"; "unsung heroes of the war" [syn: obscure, unknown, unsung]
5: not drawing attention; "an unnoticeable cigarette burn on the carpet"; "an obscure flaw" [syn: obscure, unnoticeable]
6: remote and separate physically or socially; "existed over the centuries as a world apart"; "preserved because they inhabited a place apart"- W.H.Hudson; "tiny isolated villages remote from centers of civilization"; "an obscure village" [syn: apart, isolated, obscure] v
1: make less visible or unclear; "The stars are obscured by the clouds"; "the big elm tree obscures our view of the valley" [syn: obscure, befog, becloud, obnubilate, haze over, fog, cloud, mist]
2: make unclear, indistinct, or blurred; "Her remarks confused the debate"; "Their words obnubilate their intentions" [syn: confuse, blur, obscure, obnubilate]
3: make obscure or unclear; "The distinction was obscured" [syn: obscure, bedim, overcloud]
4: reduce a vowel to a neutral one, such as a schwa
5: make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing; "a hidden message"; "a veiled threat" [syn: obscure, blot out, obliterate, veil, hide]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French oscur, obscur, from Latin obscurus Date: 15th century 1. a. dark, dim b. shrouded in or hidden by darkness c. not clearly seen or easily distinguished ; faint <obscure markings> 2. not readily understood or clearly expressed; also mysterious 3. relatively unknown: as a. remote, secluded <an obscure village> b. not prominent or famous <an obscure poet> 4. constituting the unstressed vowel ? or having unstressed ? as its value • obscurely adverb • obscureness noun Synonyms: obscure, dark, vague, enigmatic, cryptic, ambiguous, equivocal mean not clearly understandable. obscure implies a hiding or veiling of meaning through some inadequacy of expression or withholding of full knowledge <obscure poems>. dark implies an imperfect or clouded revelation often with ominous or sinister suggestion <muttered dark hints of revenge>. vague implies a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration <a vague sense of obligation>. enigmatic stresses a puzzling, mystifying quality <enigmatic occult writings>. cryptic implies a purposely concealed meaning <cryptic hints of hidden treasure>. ambiguous applies to language capable of more than one interpretation <an ambiguous directive>. equivocal applies to language left open to differing interpretations with the intention of deceiving or evading <moral precepts with equivocal phrasing>. II. transitive verb (obscured; obscuring) Date: 15th century 1. to make dark, dim, or indistinct 2. to conceal or hide by or as if by covering 3. to reduce (a vowel) to the value ? • obscuration noun III. noun Date: 1667 obscurity

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. 1 not clearly expressed or easily understood. 2 unexplained, doubtful. 3 dark, dim. 4 indistinct; not clear. 5 hidden; remote from observation. 6 a unnoticed. b (of a person) undistinguished, hardly known. 7 (of a colour) dingy, dull, indefinite. --v.tr. 1 make obscure, dark, indistinct, or unintelligible. 2 dim the glory of; outshine. 3 conceal from sight. Phrases and idioms: obscure vowel = indeterminate vowel. Derivatives: obscuration n. obscurely adv. Etymology: ME f. OF obscur f. L obscurus dark

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Obscure Ob*scure", v. i. To conceal one's self; to hide; to keep dark. [Obs.] How! There's bad news. I must obscure, and hear it. --Beau. & Fl.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Obscure Ob*scure", n. Obscurity. [Obs.] --Milton.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Obscure Ob*scure", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Obscured; p. pr. & vb. n. Obscuring.] [L. obscurare, fr. obscurus: cf. OF. obscurer. See Obscure, a.] To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious. They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights. --Shak. Why, 't is an office of discovery, love, And I should be obscured. --Shak. There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by the writings of learned men as this. --Wake. And seest not sin obscures thy godlike frame? --Dryden.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Obscure Ob*scure", a. [Compar. Obscurer; superl. Obscurest.] [L. obscurus, orig., covered; ob- (see Ob-) + a root probably meaning, to cover; cf. L. scutum shield, Skr. sku to cover: cf.F. obscur. Cf.Sky.] 1. Covered over, shaded, or darkened; destitute of light; imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim. His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. --Prov. xx. 20. 2. Of or pertaining to darkness or night; inconspicuous to the sight; indistinctly seen; hidden; retired; remote from observation; unnoticed. The obscure bird Clamored the livelong night. --Shak. The obscure corners of the earth. --Sir J. Davies. 3. Not noticeable; humble; mean. ``O base and obscure vulgar.'' --Shak. ``An obscure person.'' --Atterbury. 4. Not easily understood; not clear or legible; abstruse or blind; as, an obscure passage or inscription. 5. Not clear, full, or distinct; clouded; imperfect; as, an obscure view of remote objects. Obscure rays (Opt.), those rays which are not luminous or visible, and which in the spectrum are beyond the limits of the visible portion. Syn: Dark; dim; darksome; dusky; shadowy; misty; abstruse; intricate; difficult; mysterious; retired; unnoticed; unknown; humble; mean; indistinct.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(obscurer, obscurest, obscures, obscuring, obscured) 1. If something or someone is obscure, they are unknown, or are known by only a few people. The origin of the custom is obscure... The hymn was written by an obscure Greek composer for the 1896 Athens Olympics. ADJ 2. Something that is obscure is difficult to understand or deal with, usually because it involves so many parts or details. The contracts are written in obscure language... ? straightforward ADJ 3. If one thing obscures another, it prevents it from being seen or heard properly. One wall of the parliament building is now almost completely obscured by a huge banner. VERB: V n 4. To obscure something means to make it difficult to understand. ...the jargon that frequently obscures educational writing... This issue has been obscured by recent events. VERB: V n, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Dark, gloomy, rayless, darksome, unilluminated, unenlightened, dusky, sombre, sombrous, lurid, shadowy, murky, dim. 2. Unintelligible, incomprehensible, indistinct, indefinite, vague, doubtful, enigmatical, mysterious, mystic, mystical, recondite, abstruse, cabalistic, transcendental, high, intricate, involved, difficult, blind. 3. Retired, remote, secluded. 4. Unknown, undistinguished, nameless, unnoted, unnoticed, renownless, unhonored, humble, inglorious. 5. Imperfect, dim, indistinct, defective. II. v. a. 1. Darken, cloud, eclipse, dim, shade, obfuscate. 2. Degrade, tarnish. 3. Hide, disguise, keep in the dark, conceal, cover.

Moby Thesaurus

Cimmerian, abstruse, adiaphanous, adumbrate, aleatoric, aleatory, ambiguous, amorphic, amorphous, amphibological, anarchic, anonymous, apply to, arcane, around the bush, back of beyond, baffling, baggy, bandage, beamless, beat about, becloud, beclouded, bedarken, bedazzle, bedim, befog, befogged, beg the question, begloom, belie, bemist, benight, beyond one, bicker, black, black as night, black out, blacken, blanket, blear, bleared, bleary, blind, blind the eyes, blindfold, blobby, block, block the light, blot out, blur, blurred, blurry, boggle, broad, brown, buried, caliginous, camouflage, canopy, cast a shadow, cavil, chance, chancy, chaotic, characterless, choplogic, clabber up, clear as mud, cloak, close, clothe, cloud, cloud over, cloud up, clouded, cloudy, complex, complicate, complicated, conceal, concealed, confuse, confused, confusing, cope, corrupt, cover, cover up, covered, covert, cowl, crabbed, cramp, cryptic, curtain, dark, dark as night, dark as pitch, darken, darken over, darkling, darksome, daze, dazzle, deform, deprive of sight, devious, difficult, dim, dim out, disguise, dismal, disorder, disordered, disorderly, dissemble, distant, distort, distract attention from, dodge, double-edged, double-faced, doubtful, dubious, dull, dusk, dusky, ebon, ebony, eclipse, eclipsed, encloud, encompass with shadow, enigmatic, enmist, ensconce, enshroud, envelop, equivocal, equivocate, esoteric, evade, evade the issue, excecate, faint, falsify, far, far-off, featureless, feeble, fence, film, filmy, fog, fog up, foggy, foreign, formless, fuliginous, fuzz, fuzzy, garble, garbled, general, glare, gloom, gloomy, gloss over, gouge, grumly, half-seen, half-visible, hard, hard to understand, haze, hazy, hedge, hid, hidden, hide, hit-or-miss, hood, hoodwink, humble, ignotus, ill-defined, illegible, impervious to light, imprecise, in a cloud, in a fog, in eclipse, in purdah, in the wings, inaccessible, inaccurate, inchoate, incoherent, incommunicado, incomprehensible, inconclusive, inconsequential, inconspicuous, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indeterminate, indistinct, indistinguishable, inexact, inexplicable, inform, inglorious, inscrutable, insignificant, intransparent, intricate, jumble, jumbled, kaleidoscopic, keep from, keep under cover, knotty, latent, lax, lay on, lay over, little known, lonesome, loose, low-profile, lowly, lumpen, make blind, make uncertain, make unintelligible, mantle, mask, mean, merely glimpsed, mess up, minor, misadvise, misdirect, miseducate, misguide, misinform, misinstruct, mislead, misrepresent, mist, misteach, misty, muddle, muddy, muffle, murk, murky, mysterious, mystic, mystical, mystify, mystifying, nameless, nebulous, night-black, night-clad, night-cloaked, night-dark, night-enshrouded, night-filled, night-mantled, night-veiled, nitpick, no credit to, nondescript, nonspecific, nubilate, nubilous, obduce, obfuscate, obfuscated, obnubilate, obscured, obumbrate, occult, occultate, occulted, odd, opaque, orderless, out of focus, out-of-the-way, overcast, overcloud, overlay, overshadow, oversmoke, overspread, overtechnical, pale, palter, parry, perplexed, perplexing, pervert, pick nits, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, prevaricate, pussyfoot, put on, puzzling, quibble, random, rayless, recondite, remote, removed, renownless, retired, roiled, roily, scramble, scrambled, screen, scum, secluded, secluse, secret, semivisible, sequestered, shade, shadow, shadowed forth, shadowy, shady, shapeless, shield, shift, shroud, shuffle, shy, sidestep, slur over, smog, smoke, snow-blind, solitary, somber, split hairs, spread over, starless, stochastic, strange, strike blind, subfusc, sunless, superimpose, superpose, sweeping, tenebrious, tenebrose, tenebrous, tergiversate, tough, transcendent, turbid, umbral, uncelebrated, uncertain, unclear, undefined, under an eclipse, under cover, under house arrest, under wraps, underground, undestined, undetermined, undistinguished, unemphatic, unfamed, unfamiliar, unfathomable, unform, unglorified, unheard-of, unhonored, unilluminated, unimportant, unintelligible, unknown, unlighted, unlit, unnamed, unnotable, unnoted, unnoticeable, unnoticed, unordered, unorganized, unplain, unpopular, unrecognizable, unremarked, unrenowned, unshape, unspecified, unsung, vague, varnish, veil, veiled, weak, whitewash, wrapped in clouds