obfuscate

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“
All indications were that they had not resigned over specific conceptual disagreements, or over the affair involving ODS financing and the subsequent attempt by the ODS to deny, obfuscate, and disprove everything, but something far more trivial: Klaus's way of running the government.

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. transitive verb To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand: "A great effort was made . . . to obscure or obfuscate the truth” (Robert Conquest).
  2. transitive verb To render indistinct or dim; darken: The fog obfuscated the shore.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples

  • To extend the ideas you developed in your editorial, Stan, the real danger to free speech is not so much ordinary people telling each other to "shut up," but the gradual and (I believe) deliberate attempt to obfuscate the term to the point where it means anything that anyone says it does. —  Analog Science Fiction and Fact
  • All indications were that they had not resigned over specific conceptual disagreements, or over the affair involving ODS financing and the subsequent attempt by the ODS to deny, obfuscate, and disprove everything, but something far more trivial: Klaus's way of running the government. —  Václav vs. Václav
  • Since 1794, when George Washington formed a commission to advise him on the Whiskey Rebellion, presidents have appointed commissions to investigate, obfuscate, recommend action, or delay it — or because they couldn't think of anything else to do. —  Pinning the Blame
  • BLOOM: Look what he did in the Winona Ryder case, he delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, trying to distract and obfuscate, and ultimately his client lost. —  CNN Transcript May 27, 2003
  • What we need is an 'in' to get him to obfuscate or short-shrift the investigation. " —  American Tabloid
 

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Obfuscate has been looked up 796 times, favorited 15 times, listed 230 times, and commented on 3 times.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin obfuscāre, obfuscāt-, to darken : ob-, over; see ob- + fuscāre, to darken (from fuscus, dark).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also offuscate; from Late Latin obfuscatus, past participle of obfuscare, offuscare, darken, obscure, only in fig. use, vilify, from ob, to, + fuscus, dark, brown: see fuscous. Cf. obfusque.
  2. from Late Latin obfuscatus, past participle: see the verb.
 

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/ɑbˈfəskeɪt/
by American Heritage

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