[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

obscure \obscure"\ o^bsk=ur", a. compar. obscurer
   o^bsk=ur"~er; 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.
   1913 webster
   1. covered over, shaded, or darkened; destitute of light;
      imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim.
      1913 webster

            his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
                                                  --prov. xx.
                                                  20.
      1913 webster

   2. of or pertaining to darkness or night; inconspicuous to
      the sight; indistinctly seen; hidden; retired; remote from
      observation; unnoticed.
      1913 webster

            the obscure bird
            clamored the livelong night.          --shak.
      1913 webster

            the obscure corners of the earth.     --sir j.
                                                  davies.
      1913 webster

   3. not noticeable; humble; mean. "o base and obscure vulgar."
      --shak. "an obscure person." --atterbury.
      1913 webster

   4. not easily understood; not clear or legible; abstruse or
      incomprehensible; as, an obscure passage or inscription.
      1913 webster

   5. not clear, full, or distinct; clouded; imperfect; as, an
      obscure view of remote objects.
      1913 webster

   obscure rays opt., those rays which are not luminous or
      visible, and which in the spectrum are beyond the limits
      of the visible portion.
      1913 webster

   syn: dark; dim; darksome; dusky; shadowy; misty; abstruse;
        intricate; difficult; mysterious; retired; unnoticed;
        unknown; humble; mean; indistinct.
        1913 webster
see also:
obscurer obscurest ob- sky obscure rays 

[2] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

obscure \obscure"\, v. t. imp.  p. p. obscured
   o^bsk=urd"; 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.
   1913 webster

         they are all couched in a pit hard by herne's oak, with
         obscured lights.                         --shak.
   1913 webster

         why, 't is an office of discovery, love,
         and i should be obscured.                --shak.
   1913 webster

         there is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by
         the writings of learned men as this.     --wake.
   1913 webster

         and seest not sin obscures thy godlike frame? --dryden.
   1913 webster
see also:
obscured obscuring obscure 

[3] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

obscure \obscure"\ o^bsk=ur", v. i.
   to conceal one's self; to hide; to keep dark. obs.
   1913 webster

         how there's bad news.
         i must obscure, and hear it.             --beau.  fl.
   1913 webster

[4] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

obscure \obscure"\, n.
   obscurity. obs. --milton.
   1913 webster

[5] : WordNet (r) 2.0

obscure
     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: 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: apartp, isolated
     v 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
see also:
vague dark hidden unknown unsung unnoticeable 
apartp isolated befog becloud obnubilate 
haze over fog cloud mist confuse 
blur bedim overcloud blot out obliterate 
veil hide benight 

[6] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

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

[7] : Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)

obscure adj. used in an exaggeration of its normal meaning, to imply
   total incomprehensibility. "the reason for that last crash is obscure."
   "the `find1' 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.

[8] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

obscure
     
        "a formal description of the specification language obscure",
        j.  loeckx, tr a85/15, u saarlandes, saarbrucken, 1985.
     
        jargon file
     
     
see also:
jargon file 

Obscure >> O Words
Obscure, definition of term: Obscure
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