obscure — OET

obscure

adjective

1 he was born about 1650 though his origins and parentage remain obscure:

unclear, uncertain, unknown, in doubt, doubtful, dubious, mysterious, hazy, vague, indeterminate, concealed, hidden.

2 obscure references to Proust:

abstruse, recondite, arcane, esoteric, recherché, occult;

enigmatic, mystifying, puzzling, perplexing, baffling, ambiguous, cryptic, equivocal, Delphic, oracular, riddling, oblique, opaque, elliptical, unintelligible, uninterpretable, incomprehensible, impenetrable, unfathomable, inexplicable;

unexplained;

informal as clear as mud.

▷antonyms clear, plain.

3 an obscure Peruvian painter:

little known, unknown, unheard of, undistinguished, insignificant, unimportant, inconsequential, inconspicuous, unnoticed, nameless, anonymous, minor, humble, lowly, unrenowned, unsung, unrecognized, unhonoured, inglorious, forgotten.

▷antonyms famous, renowned.

4 grey and obscure on the horizon rose a low island | the far end of the room was obscure:

indistinct, faint, vague, ill-defined, unclear, blurred, blurry, misty, hazy, foggy, veiled, cloudy, clouded, nebulous, fuzzy;

dark, dim, unlit, black, murky, sombre, gloomy, shady, shadowy;

literary dusky, tenebrous, darkling, crepuscular;

rare caliginous, Cimmerian.

▷antonyms distinct.

verb

1 grey clouds obscured the sun:

hide, conceal, cover, veil, shroud, screen, mask, cloak, cast a shadow over, shadow, envelop, mantle, block, block out, blank out, obliterate, eclipse, overshadow;

literary enshroud, bedim, benight;

rare obnubilate, adumbrate.

▷antonyms reveal.

2 recent events have obscured rather than illuminated the issue:

confuse, complicate, obfuscate, cloud, blur, muddy;

muddy the waters;

literary becloud, befog.

▷antonyms clarify, illuminate.

obscure Oxford Dictionary of English