All 9 Uses of
obscure
in
Billy Budd
- Coke and Blackstone hardly shed so much light into obscure spiritual places as the Hebrew prophets.
Chpt 11 (definition 1) *obscure = difficult to understand
- There was no moon as yet; a haze obscured the star-light.
Chpt 14 (definition 2) *obscured = made less visible
- …the old Merlin gave a twisting wrench with his black teeth at his plug of tobacco, vouchsafing no reply to Billy's impetuous question, tho' now repeated, for it was his wont to relapse into grim silence when interrogated in skeptical sort as to any of his sententious oracles, not always very clear ones, rather partaking of that obscurity which invests most Delphic deliverances from any quarter.
Chpt 15 (definition 1)obscurity = the quality of being difficult to understand or see
- Shrewd ones may also think it but natural in Billy to set about sounding some of the other impressed men of the ship in order to discover what basis, if any, there was for the emissary's obscure suggestions as to plotting disaffection aboard.
Chpt 17 (definition 1)obscure = not clearly seen, understood, or expressed
- But these thoughts and kindred dubious ones flitting across his mind were suddenly replaced by an intuitional surmise which, though as yet obscure in form, served practically to affect his reception of the ill tidings.
Chpt 18 (definition 1)
- At that question unintentionally touching on a spiritual sphere wholly obscure to Billy's thoughts, he was nonplussed, evincing a confusion indeed that some observers, such as can readily be imagined, would have construed into involuntary evidence of hidden guilt.
Chpt 21 (definition 1)
- It is another thing personally and under fire to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.
Chpt 21 (definition 2)obscuring = making less visible or understandable
- In contrast with the funereal hue of these surroundings the prone sailor's exterior apparel, white jumper and white duck trousers, each more or less soiled, dimly glimmered in the obscure light of the bay like a patch of discolored snow in early April lingering at some upland cave's black mouth.
Chpt 24 (definition 1)obscure = not clearly seen, understood, or expressed
- Other lanterns at intervals serve but to bring out somewhat the obscurer bays which, like small confessionals or side-chapels in a cathedral, branch from the long dim-vistaed broad aisle between the two batteries of that covered tier.
Chpt 24 (definition 1)obscurer = less visible or less understandable
Definitions:
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(1) (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.
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(2) (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."