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e; darkness; privacy; inconspicuousness; unintelligibleness; uncertainty. Yuo are not for obscurity designed. Dryden. They were now brought forth from obscurity, to be contemplated by artists with admiration and despair. Macaulay.

To make (a thing) certain to the mind; to free from obscurity, doubt, or change; to make sure of; to fix; to determine. [Archaic] The divine law . . . ascertaineth the truth. Hooker. The very deferring [of his execution] shall increase and ascertain the condemnation. Jer. Taylor. The ministry, in order to ascertain a m…

A place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight. I fancy there was a background of grinding and waiting before Miss Torry could produce this highly finished . . . performance. Mrs. Alexander. A husband somewhere in the background. Thackeray.

To cause obscurity or dimness to; to dim; to cloud. If thou becloud the sunshine of thine eye. Quarles.

Dimness or obscurity of sight, dependent upon a speck on the cornea; also, the speck itself.

To free from obscurity or ambiguity; to relive of perplexity; to make perspicuous. Many knotty points there are Which all discuss, but few can clear. Prior.

or place on, or as on a cushion. Many who are cushioned on thrones would have remained in obscurity. Bolingbroke.

Absence of light; darkness; obscurity; a place where there is little or no light. Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out. Shak.

The absence of light; blackness; obscurity; gloom. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. Gen. i. 2.

To make clear; to free from obscurity. [Obs.] "To declare this a little." Boyle.

To bring out, as from a grave or hiding place; to bring from obscurity into view. Addison.

Imperfect obscurity; a middle degree between light and darkness; twilight; as, the dusk of the evening.

the ocean; the sun emerges from behind the moon in an eclipse; to emerge from poverty or obscurity. "Thetis . . . emerging from the deep." Dryden. Those who have emerged from very low, some from the lowest, classes of society. Burke.

e act of emerging, or of rising out of anything; as, emersion from the sea; emersion from obscurity or difficulties. Their immersion into water and their emersion out of the same. Knatchbull.

To clear from mist, clouds, or obscurity. [R.] Bailey.

To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to expound; to unfold and illustrate the meaning of; as, to explain a chapter of the Bible. Commentators to explain the difficult passages to you. Gay. To explain away, to get rid of by explanation. "Those explain the meaning quite "away." Pope.…

The act of explaining, expounding, or interpreting; the act of clearing from obscurity and making intelligible; as, the explanation of a passage in Scripture, or of a contract or treaty.

To unfold the meaning or sense of; to explain; to clear of difficulties or obscurity; to interpret. The last verse of his last satire is not yet sufficiently explicated. Dryden.

To lay open the meaning of; to explain; to clear of obscurity; to interpret; as, to expound a text of Scripture, a law, a word, a meaning, or a riddle. Expound this matter more fully to me. Bunyan.

ere in time of severe cold. The brig and the ice round her are covered by a strange black obscurity: it is the frost smoke of arctic winters. Kane. -- Frost valve, a valve to drain the portion of a pipe, hydrant, pump, etc., where water would be liable to freeze. -- Jack Frost, a popular personification of frost.…