Definition of obfuscate
obfuscated
;obfuscating
transitive verb
1a : to throw into shadow : darkenb : to make obscure obfuscate the issue officials who … continue to obscure and obfuscate what happened — Mary Carroll
2 : confuse obfuscate the reader
intransitive verb
: to be evasive, unclear, or confusing The suspect often obfuscated during the interrogation.
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Examples of obfuscate in a Sentence
Politicians keep obfuscating the issues.
Their explanations only serve to obfuscate and confuse.
Recent Examples of obfuscate from the Web
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Rather than own up when the fraud was revealed, VW obfuscated and lied.
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Faced with more damning evidence, the industry will obfuscate rather than enlighten.
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Mr. Saverin says the legal wrangling by Mr. Mattes is a diversion meant to obfuscate the alleged wrongdoing regarding those transactions.
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That system would eliminate the fractious nature of the health-care system that obfuscates price and often makes competition meaningless or even occasionally increases costs.
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A.P.: This question raises an important issue concerning displacement: the way in which structural and historical violence is obfuscated by pointing the finger of blame somewhere else.
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Part of the problem is that disclosure has become a way to obfuscate rather than to inform.
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This complex concept has been obfuscated ever since, and now the two terms are commonly used interchangeably without regard for the disparity.
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Of course the real flow numbers had to be guessed at by smart people, because BP has been allowed to lie and obfuscate for a month.
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Did You Know?
To obfuscate something means to make it so that it isn't clear or transparent, much like dirty water makes it hard to see to the bottom of a pond. The verb shares its ob- root (meaning "over, completely") with obscure, another word that can refer to the act of concealing something or making it more difficult to see or understand. The rest of obfuscate comes from Latin fuscus, which means "dark brown" and is distantly related to our word dusk.
OBFUSCATE Defined for English Language Learners
obfuscate
playDefinition of obfuscate for English Language Learners
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: to make (something) more difficult to understand
Learn More about obfuscate
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See words that rhyme with obfuscate Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for obfuscate Spanish Central: Translation of obfuscate Nglish: Translation of obfuscate for Spanish speakers
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