obfuscate

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What the media did its best to obfuscate is the vigor with which President-Elect Obama will pursue egregious restrictions like the "Assault Weapons" Ban (AWB).

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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)

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Examples (36)

  • Experienced politicians know that you are supposed to stonewall, obfuscate, pressure libraries to expunge any record of unsavory political associations and ship potential witnesses off to Caribbean islands - another good reason not to sell the executive jet. —  The Smallest Minority
  • Then there's the real story buried in language meant to obfuscate: Create 3,000,000 new jobs "more than 80 per cent of them in the private sector." —  The Shotgun
  • Catholic Mahoney is FULL of BaloneyThe criminal pedophile scandals that have rocked the Catholic church over the last few years are being resolved slowly, as the egos and backwards ethics of leaders like Cardinal Mahoney try to restrict, obfuscate, and impede the facts in the hundreds of cases and obstruct the investigations of ... —  Verum Serum
  • Let's hope this is all blather intended to obfuscate, rather than an indication of actual intentions ... —  Bill's Big Diamond Blog
  • Then they can lie, obfuscate, duck and dodge and exploit and manipulate and finger point. —  Firedoglake
 

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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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