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obscure English

Meaning obscure meaning

What does obscure mean?
Definitions in simple English

obscure

If something is obscure, it is not easy to understand. The textbook the teacher was using in her class was obscure. If something is obscure, it is not bright in color or appearance; it is dull or dark. If something is obscure, it is very hard to make out a clear image of it; it is faint; it is unclear or vague. If something is obscure, it is hidden; it is out of sight. The Johnsons decided to have a date at an obscure retreat. If a place where people live is obscure, it is found far away from where most other people live. If something is obscure, it is not easily seen; it is inconspicuous. The ruby had an obscure flaw in it. If somebody is obscure, they are not known; they have no fame and are not notable.

obscure

If someone obscures something, they darken it; they make it faint. If someone obscures something, they hide it from sight; they put it out of sight. The fog obscured the road ahead of Sherry while she was driving. The cloud was obscuring the light from the Sun while they moved over the Sun.

obscure

(= vague) 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 (= cloud) make less visible or unclear The stars are obscured by the clouds the big elm tree obscures our view of the valley make obscure or unclear The distinction was obscured (= dark) 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 (= confuse, blur, obnubilate) make unclear, indistinct, or blurred Her remarks confused the debate Their words obnubilate their intentions reduce a vowel to a neutral one, such as a schwa (= unnoticeable) not drawing attention an unnoticeable cigarette burn on the carpet an obscure flaw (= unsung) not famous or acclaimed an obscure family unsung heroes of the war (= veil, hide) make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing a hidden message a veiled threat (= hidden) difficult to find hidden valleys a hidden cave an obscure retreat (= apart, isolated) 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

Synonyms obscure synonyms

What other words have the same or similar meaning as obscure?

Topics obscure topics

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Conjugation obscure conjugation

How do you conjugate obscure?

obscure · verb

Examples obscure examples

How do I use obscure in a sentence?

Simple sentences

The meaning of this sentence is obscure.
The meaning is still obscure to me.
The reason why he left the tennis club is obscure.
The cause of the accident is still obscure.
His explanation is too obscure to understand.
It's quite obscure what this sentence means.
The sky is obscure, I can see no star.
It's still obscure to me.

Movie subtitles

It's a little obscure, isn't it?
Then in 1923 a Greek dealer named Charilaos Konstantinides found it in an obscure shop.
You are an obscure young workman, wanted for the committing of an extremely unpopular crime.
Some obscure meaning in this I fail to catch.
Some obscure martyr in some forgotten province.
He prepares long and obscure sermons, which he's unable to memorize. and has to read like a stumbling and inarticulate child.
One can spend too much of one's life locked in stuffy rooms seeking out obscure truths.
From obscure private, to Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, cover boy of the magazines.
A very obscure something.
The only safety is in being obscure, in being nothing.
Henry, isn't it a little late for these obscure discussions?
You see, the captain has plans for being rich and obscure.
It's really an obscure and unremarkable name you understand, Professor.
It was obvious that an obscure and terrible ill was slowly corrupting the human mind.
A group of obscure people meet to decide the fate of Russia.
I hope I'm not obscure.
I remembered what you'd written about Tess and Jude the Obscure.
You are an obscure young workman. wanted for the committing of an extremely unpopular crime.
Then the convents and temples the districts and towns, the cottages and houses are surrounded by the obscure murmuring of praying monks.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that among some obscure tribe of savages orange pips were looked upon. as a symbol of death.
Strange screams of death, and prophesying with accents terrible of dire combustion and confused events new hatch'd to the woeful time, the obscure bird clamour'd the livelong night.
I refer to a rather obscure postscript on the back of the second letter from friend Smith.
Yesterday, the unsuccessful raid, today, the Cuba Cabana closes, and the owner is leaving the country head over heels on an obscure freighter.
For 30-odd years. I have made a profession of ignorance with particular reference to my real name. my obscure beginnings, and my mysterious birth.
For some obscure reason, I think you're very nice.
Say the not so obscure reason.
Our difference is that I don't believe it can be destroyed by 13 slips of paper covered with obscure symbols.
A Japanese empire was destroyed by a slip of paper covered with obscure symbols. Once those symbols were translated into power.
I was alone, walking in an obscure country.
The reference here is very obscure.
Very obscure.
An index and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts.
The origin of the Monoids is obscure.
For some unknown reason, due to some obscure motive, after two years of relative quiet, with the war contained mostly in the mountains, disturbances broke out again without warning, and nobody knows why or how.
Its many particles will obscure their sensing device, Centurion.

News and current affairs

In October 2007, Cherkesov (now chief of one of the most obscure and powerful services, the Federal Anti-Drug Administration) published another essay in which he lamented his colleagues' degradation: warriors had turned into traders, he complained.
No amount of discussion over trade can obscure the true issues of vital concern between China and India.
Links to obscure websites with uncensored news about the catastrophe could even be found on the government newspaper's official website, People's Daily.
Everywhere we look (except, perhaps, in New Guinea's deep valleys, where obscure tribes may remain isolated from one another), there are only mixed cultures.
But no amount of finger pointing can obscure the fact that, 50 years after the European Community's creation, Europe badly needs a new political framework, if not a new project, to shore up its unity.
The Soviets plucked a relatively obscure Korean communist, Kim Il-sung, from an army camp in Vladivostok, and installed him in Pyongyang as the leader of North Korea.
Yet the EU's strategy towards Ukraine has been ambiguous and obscure.
Williamson's opinions suddenly mattered, because this obscure, excommunicated priest was about to be reinstated by the Pope.
At the same time, these objectives, while pressing, should not obscure the need to focus on yields - increases in which have accounted for three-quarters of food-production growth in recent decades.
Who would have predicted that within a decade, an obscure Corsican soldier would lead French armies to the banks of the Nile, or that the Napoleonic Wars would disrupt Europe until 1815?
The traditional hostility between labor unions and the world of finance should not obscure their common interest in using financial tools in an expansive and creative way.
Accusations and finger pointing abounds, but the facts remain obscure.
Prime Minister Koizumi testified in the Diet that the Constitution contained obscure and unclear terms and that Japan must interpret them with common sense.
The smoke over Baghdad came mostly from oil deliberately burned in ditches and trenches to obscure potential targets from air attack.
Arafat's ability to symbolize the Palestinian cause throughout the world has worn thin in recent years, but any successor would be more obscure.
Nonetheless, the ESS's soft-power vision should not be allowed to obscure the security challenges that Europe faces.
It is therefore safe to assume that not only obscure academics and correspondents, but officials in Beijing as well, are now busy studying the history of the Ghulja uprising and of Osman Batur's guerillas.
As a colleague of mine likes to put it, one good school-lunch program could be enough to obscure the biological effects.
For reasons that are now obscure, there is an unwritten rule that Commission presidents must be drawn from the ranks of past or current prime ministers.
Neither alternative is particularly charming, which would explain why he preferred to obscure his country's position.
Like its denials last year about deploying Chinese troops in Pakistani-held Kashmir to build strategic projects, China has demonstrated a troubling propensity to obscure the truth.
That may sound obscure to a non-economist, but it was a devastating indictment.
Raised on textbooks that obscure the role of institutions, economists often imagine that markets arise on their own, with no help from purposeful, collective action.
Then they freed themselves of all but the lightest contact with their political masters: they became independent technocrats, a monetary priesthood that spoke in Delphic terms obscure to mere mortals.
But this, too, seems unlikely, if only because, in today's interconnected world, the US and China cannot allow conflict and competition to obscure their common interests.
While some of the excesses in risk-taking have been curbed, predatory lending and unregulated trading in obscure over-the-counter derivatives continue.
As was true of religious zealotry in the past, the ideology of human rights is being invoked to defend or obscure the oppression of others.
Palestine would then be relegated to an obscure corner of the international agenda.

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