Both Uses of
obscure
in
A Christmas Carol
- To see the dingy cloud come drooping down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.
Chpt 1 (definition 1) *obscuring = making less visible
- They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before,
Chpt 4 (definition 2) *obscure = not known to many people and undistinguished
Definitions:
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(1) (obscure as in: it obscured my view) to block from view or make less visible or understandableeditor'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."
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(2) (obscure as in: knows the famous and the obscure) not known to many people; or unimportant or undistinguishededitor's notes: More rarely, this meaning of obscure can be used for:
- seemingly unimportant -- as in "I want her on the team. She always seems to ask obscure questions that reveal problems in a different light."
- humble (typically only found in classic literature) -- as in "Nobody at the table would have guessed of her obscure family background."