Literary notes about obfuscated (AI summary)
The term "obfuscated" serves as a flexible literary tool that can describe both a literal and metaphorical state of obscurity. It is often used to depict mental disarray—frequently brought on by intoxication or overwhelming stimuli—as characters find their thoughts muddled or blurred, as seen when individuals are rendered dazed by substances or tumultuous events ([1], [2], [3]). Beyond its connection to altered or dulled perception, "obfuscated" is also employed to suggest intentional complexity, where ideas or even practical details are rendered less clear, thus heightening intrigue or humor ([4], [5], [6]). In some instances, the word takes on a more concrete description, evoking an image of something physically murky or clouded, whether it be in the description of a surface or an overall atmosphere ([7], [8]). These varied applications underscore the word’s versatility, allowing authors to effectively convey a spectrum of obscured, confused, or deliberately intricate states.
- The whole company stared at me with a whimsical muggy look, like men whose senses were a little obfuscated by beer rather than wine.
— from Tales of a Traveller by Washington Irving - I was dizzied, obfuscated, by all this onslaught of thunder, lightning, wind, blackness, and water.
— from The Mutiny of the Elsinore by Jack London - His perceptions, never very quick or clear, were now undoubtedly somewhat obfuscated with what he had been drinking.
— from Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 1. by Samuel Warren - But though they helped make his position tenable, they obfuscated his true significance by their purely literary appreciations.
— from Modern Painting, Its Tendency and Meaning by Willard Huntington Wright - But it was their remoter, complicated desires and mental processes that obfuscated him.
— from The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii by Jack London - The problem has been obfuscated by the modern jargon of art.
— from Donatello, by Lord Balcarres by Crawford, David Lindsay, Earl of - Adj. turbid, thick, muddy, obfuscated, fuliginous[obs3], hazy, misty, foggy, vaporous, nubiferous[obs3]; cloudy (cloud) 353.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - He looked across to the other chair, with its broken spindles and obfuscated varnish.
— from Bertram Cope's Year by Henry Blake Fuller