obscure

adjective

1. 1

   Dark, faint or indistinct.

   I found myself in an obscure wood.

   His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

2. 2

   Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.

   The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.

   the obscure corners of the earth

3. 3

   Difficult to understand; abstruse.

   an obscure passage or inscription; The speaker made obscure references to little-known literary works.

   The lock was of a kind that Watt could not pick. Watt could pick simple locks, but he could not pick obscure locks.

   The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure.

4. 4

   Not well-known.

   Of all the medical monsters Peter Hotez could have set out to slay, the Yale University researcher could not have chosen a more wily and obscure villain than the hookworm.

   i need to be REALLY careful to not use any obscure words. otherwise my tweets might end up on a wiktionary page

5. 5

   Unknown or uncertain; unclear.

   The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.

verb

1. 1

   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.

   c. 1688', William Wake, Preparation for Death There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured in the writings of learned men as this.

2. 2

   To hide, put out of sight etc.

   It has been little altered over the years save for the addition of a platform awning which rather obscures the arcaded entrance to the booking hall.

   But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

   I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity.

3. 3

   obsoleteTo conceal oneself; to hide.

   How! There's bad news. / I must obscure, and hear it.

Forms

comparative

obscurer, more obscure

superlative

obscurest, most obscure

past tense

obscured

past participle

obscured

present participle

obscuring

third person singular

obscures