obscure

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obscure

(ŏb-skūr′) [L. obscurus, hide]

1. Hidden, indistinct, as the cause of a condition.

2. To make less distinct or to hide.

References in classic literature ?

More fell than hunger, anguish, or the sea," down to the last obscure sea-dog of the "old model," having but few words and still fewer thoughts, there could not be found, I believe, one sailor who has ever coupled a curse with the good or bad name of a ship.

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Unable to realize the gravity of her conduct she seemed at last content; and he looked at her as she lay upon his shoulder, weeping with happiness, and wondered what obscure strain in the d'Urberville blood had led to this aberration--if it were an aberration.

Thereupon they quickened their pace, avoiding high roads, and following obscure paths tending more or less northward.

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There are four types of solar eclipses: total, annular, partial and hybrid,A total eclipse occurs when the dark silhouette of the moon completely obscures the sun, allowing the much fainter solar corona to be visible.

Partial solar eclipse seen in Syria, Europe, North Africa, West Asia

This monstrous building is completely out of place in that location as it obscures the Thornaby landscape and it disfigures the vista of the riverside.

Letter: Blot on landscape

Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl powerfully argued in a January edition of the Canadian Jewish News that, by so exposing and emphasizing the physical workings of the human body, Body Worlds in fact obscures the sacred.

Hey Dr. von Hagens--these are human beings you're messing with

When Elbaum glosses over this he obscures the real origins of the New Communists.

Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che

This simplification obscures numerous inalienable links between time and the events that unfold in it--links that bind us with the realm of quality and point to the true nature of things as they really are.

Shadhrah 3

In Part 7 (pair), a Rorschach-like ambiguity in twenty-three-carat gold leaf, looking something like a detached human jawbone, hovers above another gory splash that again obscures the head of a nude male cadaver.

Lucy Skaer: counter gallery

Bottom line, we live in a boundary-less universe where the intermingling of high/low art elements often obscures universal truth with transient fancy.