All 9 Uses of

obscure

in

Moby Dick

There is a deal of obscurity concerning the identity of the species thus multitudinously baptised.
Chpt 31-33 (definition 1)

obscurity = the quality of being difficult to understand or see

Admiral Nelson, also, on a capstan of gun-metal, stands his mast-head in Trafalgar Square; and ever when most obscured by that London smoke, token is yet given that a hidden hero is there; for where there is smoke, must be fire.
Chpt 34-36 (definition 2)

obscured = hid or made less visible or understandable

…that the full terror of the voyage must be kept withdrawn into the obscure background (for few men's courage is proof against protracted meditation unrelieved by action); that when they stood their long night watches, his officers and men must have some nearer things to think of than Moby Dick.
Chpt 46-48 (definition 1) *

obscure = not clearly seen

To some the general interest in the White Whale was now wildly heightened by a circumstance of the Town-Ho's story, which seemed obscurely to involve with the whale a certain wondrous, inverted visitation of one of those so called judgments of God which at times are said to overtake some men.
Chpt 52-54 (definition 1)

obscurely = in a manner that is not clearly seen, expressed or understood

Tied by the head to the stern, and by the tail to the bows, the whale now lies with its black hull close to the vessel's and seen through the darkness of the night, which obscured the spars and rigging aloft, the two—ship and whale, seemed yoked together like colossal bullocks, whereof one reclines while the other remains standing.
Chpt 64-66 (definition 2)

obscured = hid or made less visible or understandable

Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale's unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—SHOALS, ROCKS, AND BREAKERS HEREABOUTS: BEWARE!
Chpt 67-69 (definition 2)

obscuring = making less visible or understandable

Another reason which Sag-Harbor (he went by that name) urged for his want of faith in this matter of the prophet, was something obscurely in reference to his incarcerated body and the whale's gastric juices.
Chpt 82-84 (definition 1)

obscurely = in a manner that is not clearly seen, expressed or understood

...yet the peculiar horror with which he seemed to inspire the rest of the herd, was owing to a cause which at first the intervening distance obscured from us.
Chpt 85-87 (definition 2) *

obscured = hid (made less visible)

…by his compass, and takes the precise bearing of the cape at present visible, in order the more certainly to hit aright the remote, unseen headland, eventually to be visited: so does the fisherman, at his compass, with the whale; for after being chased, and diligently marked, through several hours of daylight, then, when night obscures the fish, the creature's future wake through the darkness is almost as established to the sagacious mind of the hunter, as the pilot's coast is to him.
Chpt 133-135 (definition 2)

obscures = makes less visible or understandable

Definitions:

(1) (obscure as in: the view or directions are obscure)
not clearly seen, understood, or expressed

editor's notes: Although this meaning of obscure typically refers to seeing or understanding, it can refer to difficulty with any type of detection as when something is hard to hear. It can also more specifically mean vague, or mysterious, or unknown by anyone. Much more rarely, it can mean secretive.

(2) (obscure as in: it obscured my view)
to block from view or make less visible or understandable

editor's notes: Although this meaning of obscure typically refers to seeing or understanding, it can also refer to situation where something makes something else harder to detect or as when a noise makes another noise difficult to hear. Similarly it can reference something overshadowing something else, as in "Her memory of her dog's death was obscured by her brother's death the next day."