OBSCURE


Meaning of OBSCURE in English

I. ob ‧ scure 1 /əbˈskjʊə $ -ˈskjʊr/ BrE AmE adjective

[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin obscurus ]

1 . not well known and usually not very important:

an obscure poet

The details of his life remain obscure.

2 . difficult to understand:

obscure legal phrases

For some obscure reason, the group is very popular.

—obscurely adverb

II. obscure 2 BrE AmE verb [transitive]

1 . to make something difficult to know or understand:

Recent successes have obscured the fact that the company is still in trouble.

2 . to prevent something from being seen or heard clearly:

The view was obscured by mist.

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THESAURUS

▪ hide to make something difficult to see or find, or to not show your true feelings:

He hid the gun in his pocket.

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She tried to hide her anger.

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The actress put up a hand to hide her face from the cameras.

▪ conceal formal to hide something, especially by carefully putting it somewhere. Also used when talking about hiding your feelings, especially in negative sentences:

Several kilos of drugs were concealed in the back of the truck.

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He could not conceal his feelings any longer.

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The girl quickly concealed the photograph she had been gazing at.

▪ cover up to put something over another thing that you do not want people to see, in order to hide it completely:

People cover up cracks with wallpaper or tiles.

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I used some make-up to cover up the spots.

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She was wearing a thin shawl to cover up the bruises on her arm.

▪ disguise to make someone or something seem like a different person or thing, so that other people cannot recognize them:

She managed to get into the camp by disguising herself as a soldier.

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The men had disguised the vessel as fishing boat.

▪ camouflage to hide something by covering it with materials that make it look like the things around it:

We camouflaged the plane by covering it with leaves.

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The troops used charcoal to camouflage their faces.

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Soldiers had camouflaged the trucks with branches and dirt.

▪ obscure literary to make it difficult to see something clearly:

The view was obscured by mist.

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His body was found, partially obscured by bushes, at the bottom of a shallow canyon.

▪ mask to make something less noticeable, for example a taste, a smell, a sound, or a feeling:

The lemon helps to mask the taste of the fish.

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Helen had turned on the radio to mask the noise of the traffic.

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He did little to mask his contempt.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.