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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Yes, Trump can delay, prevaricate, obfuscate, annoy and even shut down federal science.
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The investigation report depicts the board as almost entirely supine as Stumpf and his management team obfuscated and tried to explain away emerging information about the bogus account scandal—some of which cropped up even before The Times’ article.
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Has the Trump Administration taken any steps to obfuscate alleged contacts with Russian representatives?
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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.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'obfuscate'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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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