From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Obscure \Ob*scure"\ ([o^]b*sk[=u]r"), verb (used without an object) To conceal one's self; to hide; to keep dark. [Obs.]
How! There's bad news. I must obscure, and hear it. --Beau. & Fl.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Obscure \Ob*scure"\, noun Obscurity. [Obs.] --Milton.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Obscure \Ob*scure"\ ([o^]b*sk[=u]r"), adjective [Compar. {Obscurer} ([o^]b*sk[=u]r"[~e]r); 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 incomprehensible; 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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Obscure \Ob*scure"\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Obscured} ([o^]b*sk[=u]rd"); p. pr. & vb. n. {Obscuring}.] [L. obscurare, fr. obscurus: cf. OF. obscurer. See {Obscure}, adjective] 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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
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: {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}]
3: difficult to find; "hidden valleys"; "a hidden cave"; "an obscure retreat" [syn: {hidden}]
4: not famous or acclaimed; "an obscure family"; "unsung heroes of the war" [syn: {unknown}, {unsung}]
5: not drawing attention; "an unnoticeable cigarette burn on the carpet"; "an obscure flaw" [syn: {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(p)}, {isolated}]
verb
1: make less visible or unclear; "The stars are obscured by the clouds" [syn: {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}, {obnubilate}]
3: make obscure or unclear; "The distinction was obscured" [syn: {bedim}, {overcloud}]
4: make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing; "a hidden message"; "a veiled threat" [syn: {blot out}, {obliterate}, {veil}, {hide}]
5: make difficult to perceive by sight; "The foliage of the huge tree obscures the view of the lake" [syn: {benight}, {bedim}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
420 Moby Thesaurus words for "obscure": 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
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
obscure adjective Used in an exaggeration of its normal meaning, to imply total incomprehensibility. "The reason for that last crash is obscure." "The 'find(1)' command's syntax is obscure!" The phrase 'moderately obscure' implies that something could be figured out but probably isn't worth the trouble. The construction 'obscure in the extreme' is the preferred emphatic form.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
OBSCURE "A Formal Description of the Specification Language OBSCURE", J. Loeckx, TR A85/15, U Saarlandes, Saarbrucken, 1985. [{Jargon File}]
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0