Diminishes vs Obscures - What's the difference?
diminishes | obscures |
(diminish)
To make smaller.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14
, author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23
, date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To become smaller.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.
* Robynson (More's Utopia)
* Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15
* Milton
To taper.
To disappear gradually.
To take away; to subtract.
* Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2
(music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.
(obscure)
----
Dark, faint or indistinct.
* (Dante Alighieri), , 1, 1-2
* Bible, Proverbs xx. 20
Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
* (William Shakespeare)
* Sir J. Davies
Difficult to understand.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (William Wake) (1657-1737)
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=But Richmond
(label) To hide, put out of sight etc.
* (Bill Watterson), Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat , page 62
To conceal oneself; to hide.
* (Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)
As verbs the difference between diminishes and obscures
is that diminishes is (diminish) while obscures is (obscure).diminishes
English
Verb
(head)diminish
English
Verb
(es)We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys, passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}
Old soldiers?, passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.
- This doth nothing diminish their opinion.
- I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
- O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.
- Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.
Derived terms
* law of diminishing returnsobscures
English
Verb
(head)obscure
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- I found myself in an obscure wood.
- His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
- The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.
- the obscure corners of the earth
The machine of a new soul, passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure .}}
Usage notes
* The comparative obscurer and superlative obscurest, though formed by valid rules for English, are less common than more obscure' and ' most obscure .Synonyms
* enigmatic * mysterious * esotericAntonyms
* clearDerived terms
* obscurable * unobscurableVerb
(obscur)- They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights.
- There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by the writings of learned men as this.
- I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity.
- How! There's bad news. / I must obscure , and hear it.