obfuscate

present singular third person obfuscates · participle present obfuscating · participle past obfuscated · past obfuscated · first person past singular obfuscated · archaic present second person singular obfuscatest · past second person singular obfuscated · archaic past second person singular obfuscatedst · present singular third person obfuscates · archaic present singular third person obfuscateth · past singular third person obfuscated · past plural obfuscated · past subjunctive obfuscated · participle present obfuscating · participle past obfuscated

1. To make dark; to overshadow.

   The squid's ink obfuscated its presence.

   Synonyms: darken, eclipse, overshadow

2. To deliberately make more confusing in order to conceal the truth.

   obfuscate facts

   4 more examples

   Can weakness be really obfuscated?

   Before leaving the scene, the murderer set a fire in order to obfuscate any evidence of his identity.

   "What does 'obfuscate' mean?" asked Constance. Sticky, as if someone pulled a string in his back, promptly answered, "To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive, or to otherwise render indistinct." Constance looked frightened. "It means to make things muddled," Reynie said.

   2007, Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society, page 99

   When asked if Kelly could have been more transparent or truthful, that official wrote: “In this White House, it’s simply not in our DNA. Truthful and transparent is great, but we don’t even have a coherent strategy to obfuscate.”

   2018 February 13, Anonymous White House Official, “White House reels as FBI director contradicts official claims about alleged abuser”, in Washington Post

   Synonyms: confuse, muddle, obscure

3. computingTo alter code while preserving its behavior but concealing its structure and intent.

   We need to obfuscate these classes before we ship the final release.

comparative more obfuscate · superlative most obfuscate

1. obsoleteObfuscated; darkened; obscured.

   Also the vertues beynge in a cruell persone be nat only obfuscate or hyd : But also lyke wyse as norysshynge meates and drynkes in an sycke body

   1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […], London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti, →OCLC