All 3 Uses of
obscure
in
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
- A dusk like that of the outer world obscured his mind as he heard the mare's hoofs clattering along the tramtrack on the Rock Road and the great can swaying and rattling behind him.
Chpt 2 (definition 1) *obscured = clouded (made less clear)
- It was strange too that he found an arid pleasure in following up to the end the rigid lines of the doctrines of the church and penetrating into obscure silences only to hear and feel the more deeply his own condemnation.
Chpt 3 (definition 2)obscure = not clearly seen, understood, or expressed
- He would know obscure things, hidden from others,
Chpt 4 (definition 2) *obscure = mysterious (hard for others to understand)
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: the view or directions are obscure) not clearly seen, understood, or expressededitor'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.