From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishobscureob‧scure1 /əbˈskjʊə $ -ˈskjʊr/ ●○○ adjective 1 NOT KNOWFAMOUSnot well known and usually not very important an obscure poet The details of his life remain obscure.2 UNDERSTANDdifficult to understand obscure legal phrases For some obscure reason, the group is very popular. —obscurely adverb
Examples from the Corpus
obscure• The proposed arrangements however are rather obscure.• Best's art is eccentric and obscure.• Publishers would not print his earlier poetry because they felt it was too obscure.• The connection between the studies is somewhat obscure.• The Silver Apples are one of those obscure bands that you might hear about, but never actually hear.• The lines were written by an obscure English poet named Mordaunt.• an obscure Flemish painter• Laurence Hurst has pursued an obscure hint of a gender-altering parasite among human beings.• He's using an obscure old law to try to stop the new road being built.• Picasso's first exhibition received only a short mention in an obscure Parisian newspaper.• obscure regulations• It was satisfying to send away and get this obscure stuff in the mail.• About the most obscure thing touted is the fountain in Fountain Hills.• You're not expected to input anything too obscure though, so frustrations in this respect are kept to a minimum.• Each sprang from the obscure underside of the society.remain obscure• Sadler's activities as a notary in Chancery remain obscure.• The precise status and terms of reference of this committee remain obscure.• Until the final stages of the war the future form of radical and socialist politics in Britain remained obscure.• For reasons that remain obscure, caffeine significantly increases the analgesic effectiveness of both aspirin and aspirin substitutes such as acetaminophen.• But then again, so much about this brilliant, underappreciated composer, arranger and pianist has remained obscure for decades.• While causes of dyslexia remain obscure, there is growing evidence that it is neurological in nature.For ... obscure reason• My colleagues and I will vote against the Bill, and not for any obscure reason.• Archer understood that he ran the risk of having his mandate withdrawn, and for some obscure reason he disliked the prospect.• Occasionally, for some obscure reason of her own, Elinor was pleasant.• And that faced her with a course of action which, for some obscure reason, seemed rather distasteful now.• For some obscure reason you had to be taken over.obscureobscure2 ●○○ verb [transitive] 1 UNDERSTANDto make something difficult to know or understand Recent successes have obscured the fact that the company is still in trouble.2 CLEAR/EASY TO SEEto prevent something from being seen or heard clearly The view was obscured by mist.► see thesaurus at hide→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
obscure• That banner ad obscured an ad on the Time site for PointCast, which competes with NewsPage.• Everything upon which her eyes focused was obscured by a heavy veil.• Parts of the coast were obscured by fog.• If the finger is used, the image is partly obscured by the hand.• Soon, they would catch up with the sun and obscure it.• The staining frequently obscured the nucleus making assessment of the presence of nuclear staining difficult.• Fitful clouds were beginning to obscure the sun.• It must be redesigned so that it illuminates the choices facing the country - not, as now, obscures them.• Despite the obscuring veil of time, many researchers can make out the traces of the Supercontinent Cycle in the Precambrian.obscured the fact• The authors say the argument has obscured the fact that, under either financing plan, there will be a funding gap.• Second, the furore obscured the fact that Velikovsky was making an important point: catastrophes have occurred in the past.Origin obscure1 (1300-1400) Old French Latin obscurus 