All 5 Uses of
obscure
in
The War of the Worlds
- Dense clouds of smoke or dust ... spread through the clearness of the planet's atmosphere and obscured its more familiar features.
Chpt 1.1 *obscured = made less visible
- In the obscurity I could see he made a gesture of despair.
Chpt 1.11 *obscurity = darkness
- Already I had had a transient impression of these, and the first nausea no longer obscured my observation.
Chpt 2.2obscured = hid or made less visible or understandable
- On the fourteenth day I went into the kitchen, and I was surprised to find that the fronds of the red weed had grown right across the hole in the wall, turning the half-light of the place into a crimson-coloured obscurity.
Chpt 2.5obscurity = the quality of being dark, dingy, or inconspicuous
- For a long while I lay close to the peephole, but not daring to move aside the red plants that obscured it.
Chpt 2.5obscured = hid or made less visible or understandable
Definitions:
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(1)
(obscure as in: it obscured my view) to block from view or make less visible or understandableAlthough 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 expressedAlthough 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.
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(3)
(obscure as in: the famous and the obscure) not known to many people; or unimportant or undistinguishedMore 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."
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(4)
(obscure as in: was obscure, but now bright) dark or dingy; or inconspicuous (not very noticeable)This meaning of obscure is more commonly seen in classic literature than in modern writing.