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ed; destitute of light; imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim. His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Prov. xx. 20.

In an obscure manner. Milton.

The act of obscuring, or the state of being obscured; obscuration. Pomfret.

Obscurity. Bp. Hall.

One who, or that which, obscures.

See Chiaroscuro.

Somewhat obscurely or darkly. [R.] Donne.

Clouded; obscured. [R.]

The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; -- opposed to occultation. Circle of perpetual apparition. See under Circle.

To stain; to obscure; to sully; to disgrace; to cloud with infamy. For so exceeding shone his glistring ray, That Phattaint. Spenser. Lest she with blame her honor should attaint. Spenser.

ion with total eclipses of the sun. Just before and after a total eclipse, the slender, unobscured crescent of the sun's disk appears momentarily like a row of bright spots resembling a string of beads. The phenomenon (first fully described by Francis Baily, 1774 -- 1844) is thought to be an effect of irradiation, and…

To make dim; to obscure or darken. Shak.

To involve in darkness; to shroud with the shades of night; to obscure. [Archaic] The clouds benight the sky. Garth.

To smirch or soil; to discolor; to obscure. Hence: To dishonor; to sully. Shak.

ake somewhat sore or watery, as the eyes; to dim, or blur, as the sight. Figuratively: To obscure (mental or moral perception); to blind; to hoodwink. That tickling rheums Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight. Cowper. To blear the eye of, to deceive; to impose upon. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To darken; to obscure to the eye or understanding; to conceal; to deceive. Such darkness blinds the sky. Dryden. The state of the controversy between us he endeavored, with all his art, to blind and confound. Stillingfleet.

A post-office clerk whose duty is to decipher obscure addresses.

To obscure; to eclipse; to shadow. He sung how earth blots the moon's gilded wane. Cowley.

To render obscure by making the form or outline of confused and uncertain, as by soiling; to smear; to make indistinct and confused; as, to blur manuscript by handling it while damp; to blur the impression of a woodcut by an excess of ink. But time hath nothing blurred those lines of favor Which then he wore. Shak.…

s and brambles, with undergrowth and ferns, or with canes. Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, To shelter thee from tempest and from rain. Shak. He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone. Sir W. Scott. Cane brake, a thicket of canes. See Canebrake.