| 释义 |
▪ I. obscure, a. (n.)|əbˈskjʊə(r)|
[a. OF. obscur (14th c.), earlier oscur (12th c.) = It. oscuro, Sp., Pg. obscuro:—L. obscūr-us, f. ob- (ob- 1 c) + scur-, f. root scu-, Skr. sku- to cover; cf. L. scū-tum shield, Gr. σκευή attire, covering, σκῦτος hide.]
A. adj.
1. a. Devoid of or deficient in light; dark, dim; hence, gloomy, dismal.
c1400Rom. Rose 5348 Love is right of sich nature; Now is fair, and now obscure,..And whylom dim, and whylom clere. c1477Caxton Jason 19 b, Ha-a- obscure and derke night wherfore endurest thou so long. 1483― G. de la Tour E vij b, Put in a pryson which was right derke and obscure. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. ii. vii. 51 Is't like that Lead containes her?..it were too grose To rib her seare⁓cloth in the obscure graue. 1611Bible Prov. xx. 20 Who so curseth his father or his mother, his lampe shall be put out in obscure darkenesse. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 27 Their Chappel is large but obscure. 1799Cowper Castaway 1 Obscurest night involved the sky. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xliii. (1856) 396 The day misty and obscure.
b. obscure rays, the dark or invisible heat-rays of the solar spectrum.
[1794J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 44 Here is therefore a species of light which we may term obscure. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. i. 229 Rays which are obscure to some are luminous to others.] 1863― Heat 262 These incandescent coal-points emit an abundance of obscure rays—of rays of pure heat, which have no illuminating power. 1873W. Lees Acoustics iii. vii. 125 Most sources of heat emit heat rays, which are partly luminous and partly obscure.
†c. fig. Intellectually dark; unenlightened. Obs.
1588Fraunce Lawiers Log. i. i. 2 The obscure head-pieces of one or two loytering Friers. 1596Bacon Max. & Uses Com. Law Ded., The more ignorant and obscure time undertooke to correct the more learned and flourishing.
2. Of, pertaining to, or frequenting the darkness; enveloped in darkness, and so eluding sight.
1605Shakes. Macb. ii. iii. 65 The obscure Bird clamor'd the liue-long Night. 1667Milton P.L. ii. 132 Thir Legions..with obscure wing Scout farr and wide into the Realm of night. Ibid. ix. 159 Wrapt in mist Of midnight vapor, glide obscure, and prie In every Bush. a1670Spalding Troub. Chas. I (1851) II. 468 In effect, we had no certainty quhair he went, he wes so obscure. 1882G. F. Armstrong Garl. fr. Greece, Last Sortie 268 There we mocked the keen pursuer's eye, And moved obscure in noiseless solitude.
3. Of colour or hue: Approaching black, dark, sombre; in later use, dingy, dull, not bright.
1490Caxton Eneydos xxii. 79 The holy waters dedicate to the sacryfice became blacke and obscure. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies vii. vii. 513 The which divided it selfe into two streames, whereof the one was of a very obscure azure. 1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 54 Hang'd all over with blacke Arras... So as amongst all these obscure colours, there was not any whit discernable. 1650Bulwer Anthropomet. 167 It is an ill omen..if their nails decline to a livid or obscure colour. 1662Merrett tr. Neri's Art of Glass lviii, An obscure Yellow. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Presage, If the new Moon has obscure Horns, and that the upper Horn is obscurer than the lower, it will rain in the Wane of the Moon. 1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 136 Wings partly obscure, partly diaphanous. 1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 284 Obscure,..a surface which reflects the light but little. 1890A. R. Wallace Darwinism 11 An obscure colour may render concealment more easy for some.
4. a. Without clearness of form or outline; indistinct; undefined; hardly perceptible to the eye; faint, ‘light’.
1593T. Fale Dialling 45 Draw an obscure or light line from A. to B. 1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. (1684) 16 You must rule your Paper or Parchment with an obscure Meridian Line, and Parallel Lines. 1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1115/4 The Nag hath two obscure flesh Brands on his Buttocks. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 160 ⁋2 What is distant is in itself obscure, and, when we have no wish to see it, easily escapes our notice. 1828Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 341 Wings slightly tinted with brown, and the nerves obscure. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. iv. (1849) 34 The satellites eclipse Jupiter, sometimes passing like obscure spots across his surface.
b. With reference to other senses: Indistinctly perceived, felt, or heard; indistinct. spec. of a vowel sound, weak and centralized; reduced.
[1568T. Smith De Recta et Emendata Linguæ Anglicæ Scriptione Dialogus 14 Si Galli suum habent fœmininum obscurum, siue fuscum e, quod in fine dictionis positum, propè nihil sonat, auditur tamen, & apud illos est frequentissimum, nostræ linguæ prorsus incognitum.] 1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 4/1 He hath a smalle, feeble, and obscure pulse. [a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. iii, E..where it endeth, and soundeth obscure and faintly. 1653J. Wallis Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ i. 6 Eodem loci..formatur Gallorum e fœmininum; sono nempe obscuro. Ibid. 7 Ibidem etiam... Sonatur ò, vel ũ, obscurum.] 1656Ridgley Pract. Physic 220 An obscure voice. 1665O. Price Vocal Organ B3v The ,e, is twofold. 1. Clear; as in let... 2. Obscure, onely when e is short before r, as in her, liberty, brother, father, merchant. Ibid. B4 The short ŭ, and obscure ò, are formed in the throat, yet narrower then è. 1695Writing Scholar's Compan. x. 36, o, is obscure, like (oo) or short (u)..before (m) as, come [etc.]. 1791Walker Eng. Dict., Pronunciation 23 Nothing tends more to tarnish and vulgarize the pronunciation than this short and obscure sound of the unaccented u. 1874Sweet Eng. Sounds 63 The change of the old u into ə was fully established in the Transition period..Wallis calls it an obscure sound. 1884New Eng. Dict. Introd. 24 In the Vowels, ordinary (or short) quantity is unmarked..obscure quality by (˘). 1892W. W. Skeat Primer Eng. Etymol. ii. 25 In the A.S. Dūn-stān..the ā has been shortened, and is now obscure. 1904Rep. Joint Comm. Phonetic Eng. Alphabet (U.S.) iii. 30 The obscure [ə] is the goal to which the most of the other vowels tend when not supported by the stress. 1909O. Jespersen Mod. Eng. Gram. I. ix. 249 Portuguese short a is an obscure vowel. 1924J. S. Kenyon Amer. Pronunc. 107 Naturalness..is gained only by observing the normal relation between strest and unstrest syllables, distinct and obscure vowels. 1967J. D. O'Connor Better Eng. Pronunc. v. 106 In initial position, as in..attempt,..account,..observe, you must again keep it very short and very obscure.
5. Of a place: Not readily seen or discovered; hidden, retired, secret; remote from observation.
1484Caxton Fables of Alfonce i, He anone toke hym secretely in to his hows, and ledde hym in to a sure and obscure place. c1500Melusine 328 He departed & went by a waye obscure tyl he fond a feld. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 77 Why are you sequestred from all your traine?.. And wandred hither to an obscure plot. 1660Blount Boscobel 23 Penderel had conveyed Him into the obscurest part of it [a coppice]. 1796Burke Let. Noble Ld. Wks. VIII. 6 They pursue, even such as me, into the obscurest retreats, and haul them before their revolutionary tribunals. 1832Lytton Eugene A. i. iii, I also keep arms even in this obscure and safe retreat.
6. a. Inconspicuous, undistinguished, unnoticed.
1555Eden Decades 312 Great thynges proceade & increase of smaul & obscure begynnynges. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 60 If you take Nature at the rise..in her rudimental and obscure beginnings. 1715De Foe Fam. Instruct. (1841) I. Introd. 5 The scene of this little action is not laid very remote, or the circumstance obscure. a1854H. Reed Lect. Eng. Hist. v. (1876) 14 The small and obscure beginnings of great political institutions.
b. Of persons, their station, descent, etc.: Not illustrious or noted; unknown to fame; humble, lowly, mean.
a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 33 The yonge man..was discended of a basse and obscure parentage. 1555Eden Decades To Rdr. (Arb.) 49 It had byn better for hym to haue byn obscure & vnknowen. 1662Wood Life Nov. (O.H.S.) I. 462 Died a little better than in an obscure condition. 1713Steele Englishm. No. 10. 69 Be obscure and innocent, rather than conspicuous and guilty. 1750Gray Elegy 30 Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure. 1878J. P. Hopps Jesus vi. 25 Jesus called poor fishermen, sorrowful sinners, obscure working-men, neglected children.
7. fig.
a. Not manifest to the mind or understanding; imperfectly known or understood; not clear or plain; hidden, doubtful, vague, uncertain.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) II. 55 There be other names of cities founde in cronicles obscure to the intellecte. 1484Caxton Fables of Alfonce iii, Of a sentence gyuen upon a derke and obscure cause. 1596Drayton Legends i. 96 And brought the most obscurest Things to light. 1632J. Hayward tr. Biondi's Eromena 16 The King of Corsica, who gave no obscure signes of enmity. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 192 Not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and suttle. 1732Arbuthnot Rules of Diet 315 To know the Cause and seat of this Disease, which is often obscure. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 261 Yet geologists have presumed to resort to a nascent order of things..to explain every obscure phenomenon. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 65 The origin of hail is still obscure.
b. Of words, statements, explanations, meanings: Not perspicuous; not clearly expressed; hard to understand. Also, of a speaker or writer.
1495Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 8 Which acte..is so obscure derke and diffuse that the true entent of the makers therof cannot perfitely be undrestond. 1553T. Wilson Rhet. 61 b, In seekyng to be short be not obscure. 1573–80Baret Alv. O 11 A darke, obscure and crabbed style. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iv. xliv. 339 Some of the obscurer places of the New Testament. 1794Paley Evid. (1825) II. 265 This discourse was obscure. 1865Grote Plato I. i. 27 Herakleitus of Ephesus, known throughout antiquity by the denomination of the Obscure. 1878R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. viii. 230 If there are sentences which are at all obscure.
B. n.
1. Obscurity, darkness; the ‘outer darkness’.
1667Milton P.L. ii. 406 Who shall..through the palpable obscure find out His uncouth way. 1725Pope Odyss. xix. 458 Cautious in th' obscure he hop'd to fly The curious search of Euryclea's eye. 1812S. Rogers Voy. Columbus xii. 12 In his progress thro' the dread obscure. 1820Lamb Elia Ser. i. Oxf. in Vac., As though a palpable obscure had dimmed the face of things.
2. Indistinctness of outline or colour.
1792A. Young Trav. France (1889) 30 An animated..mass of infinitely varied parts—melting gradually into the distant obscure. a1839Praed Poems (1864) II. 353 And, in the calm obscure of even, All things and colours fade.
3. Painting. pl. The ‘shades’ of a picture.
1814W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXVIII. 213 Distance progressively the light, and you will weaken both the clears and the obscures.
▪ II. obscure, v.|əbˈskjʊə(r)|
[f. obscure a., or the corresp. L. obscūrā-re to obscure, darken, OF. obscurer, earlier oscurer; cf. It. oscurare to darken.]
1. a. trans. To make obscure or dark, to involve in darkness; to darken; to deprive of light or brightness; to dim.
1432–50tr. Higden (Rolls) VII. 411 That kynge dreamed that..the bloode of hym obscurede and hidde the sonne. a1547Surrey æneid ii. (1557) C iij b, The cloude..Whoes moisture doth obscure allthinges about. 1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 728 Now of this dark night I perceive the reason: Cynthia for shame obscures her silver shine. 1651Hobbes Leviath. i. ii. 5 The light of the Sun obscureth the light of the Starres. 1703Pope Winter 30 See gloomy clouds obscure the cheerful day! 1781Cowper Hope 534 Amazed that shadows should obscure the sight Of one whose birth was in a land of light. 1853Lytton My Novel iii. xxii, The cuttle-fish, that by obscuring the water sails from its enemy.
b. intr. (for refl.) To become dark.
1500–20Dunbar Poems lxxii. 84 The erde did trimmill, the stanis claif, The sone obscurit of his licht.
c. transf. trans. To make obscure in quality of sound, etc.; spec. to articulate (a vowel) in a weaker, more centralized position.
a1637B. Jonson Eng. Gram. (1640) i. iii. 36 Where it [sc. e] endeth a last Syllable,..it either soundeth flat... Or, it passeth away obscur'd, like the faint i. as in these, Written..divel, &c. a1790B. Franklin Autobiogr. in Writings (1905) I. 358, I found his voice distinct till I came near Front Street, when some noise in that street obscur'd it. 1873J. A. H. Murray Dial. S. Counties Scot. 132 In other positions the vowel sounds are dulled or obscured to such an extent that they lose their original quality and fall into the obscure ĕ described. 1884New Eng. Dict. Introd. 24 In modern English speech, vowels are regularly obscured in syllables that have neither primary nor subordinate stress, especially in those that follow the main stress. 1924J. S. Kenyon Amer. Pronunc. 108 The student should rid himself of a common misconception; namely, that the obscuring of certain consonants and vowels owing to lack of stress on syllables or words is the result of a corruption of good English. 1934S.P.E. Tract xxxix. 621 ‘Short e’. This is rarely raised to [i], and never, except before -r, obscured to [ə]. 1934S. Robertson Devel. Mod. Eng. (1936) vii. 230 Obscuring and loss of formerly distinctive vowel sounds, and dropping of consonants in phonetically difficult combinations.., are both to be found in Old English. 1935J. S. Kenyon Amer. Pronunc. (ed. 6) 90 The vowels of unaccented syllables have gradually become obscured to a sound quite different in resonance, or quality, from what they had formerly been. 1962A. C. Gimson Introd. Pronunc. Eng. vi. 80 Vowels under weak accent are increasingly obscured to [ə] or [ɪ], or are elided.
2. To dim or lessen the lustre or glory of; ‘to put in the shade’; to overshadow or outshine.
1548Latimer Serm. Ploughers (Arb.) 30 To deface and obscure Godes glory. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iv. 22 You haue suborn'd this man Of purpose, to obscure my Noble birth. 1781J. Moore View Soc. It. (1790) II. lxviii. 327 His liberality..obscured the glory of all who had preceded him in the office. 1819Shelley Cenci iii. i. 102 That faith no agony shall obscure in me. 1874Green Short Hist. iii. §4. 129 As yet..the fortunes of the University [of Oxford] were obscured by the glories of Paris.
3. a. To cover or hide from view; to conceal.
1606G. W[oodcocke] Hist. Ivstine xxxiv. 112 He lay hoping to obscure himselfe in an vnfrequented and desolate place. 1632Lithgow Trav. v. 210 Blood-thirsty Arabians, who in holes, caues, and bushes, lie obs[c]ured, waiting for..Trauellers. 1678A. Behn Sir P. Fancy ii. i, What shall I do? 'tis too late to obscure myself. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 70, I have lain obscured in the evening near..where they resort, and..have kill'd 14 of them. 1767Cries of Blood 22 They plac'd me below..and obscur'd me with boards. 1810Scott Lady of L. iii. iv, His grisled beard and matted hair Obscured a visage of despair. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxxii. (1878) 548 The moon was now quite obscured.
†b. intr. (for refl.) To hide oneself. Obs.
1603Petowe in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 105 When you might see all pleasures shun the light, And love obscuer, at Eliza's fall. 1623Fletcher & Rowley Maid in Mill iv. ii, How! there's bad tidings: I must obscure and hear it. 1632Shirley Changes iv. i, Here Ile obscure. [Withdrawes.]
4. To conceal from knowledge or observation; to keep secret the identity of; to keep dark; to disguise. Also refl.
†a. Of persons. Obs.
c1530L. Cox Rhet. (1899) 88, I wolde that they wolde set the penne to the paper, and by their industry obscure my rude ignoraunce. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, i. i. 63 The Prince obscur'd his Contemplation Vnder the Veyle of Wildnesse. 1614Raleigh Hist. World ii. (1634) 405 David..fled thence..to Achis,..Prince of Geth: where to obscure himselfe, he was forc't to counterfeit both simplicitie and distraction.
b. Of things.
1757Foote Author i. Wks. 1799 I. 143 Ay, Robin, there's no obscuring extraordinary talents. 1821Shelley Epipsych. 33 Thou Mirror In whom..All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on! Ay, even the dim words which obscure thee now Flash, lightning-like, with unaccustomed glow.
5. To render dim or vague to the understanding; to render unintelligible. † to obscure oneself from, to render one's meaning obscure to (obs.).
1584in Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. vi. (1677) 331 He at first obscured himself from me, and would not be plain. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 129 To obscure, rather than illustrate, that which is so..plainly there expressed. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 156 ⁋2 The evidence [is] obscured by inaccurate argumentation. 1840Mill Diss. & Disc. (1875) I. 409 This language..serves not to elucidate, but to disguise and obscure. 1875Ouseley Mus. Form xii. 57 It [the fugue form for choruses] should be freely adopted whenever it does not too much obscure the sense of the words.
Hence obˈscuring vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1602Marston Antonio's Rev. ii. iv, Under the hatches of obscuring earth. 1611Cotgr., Obscurcissement, an obscuring, darkening, dimming, ouercasting, ouershadowing. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 494 This obscuring of the Sun [by clouds] at noon, is commonly sudden. 1750tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 128 The star..is hid with obscuring clouds. 1873J. A. H. Murray Dial. S. Counties Scot. 133 To indicate this obscuring of unaccented vowels. 1885Athenæum 26 Sept. 398/2 The relations between Eve and her brother, little Tom, until the premature obscuring of that bright young piece of manhood. |