obscurely

American  

[uhb-skyoor-lee] / əbˈskyʊər li /

adverb

1. in a way that is not expressed clearly or plainly; ambiguously or vaguely.

   This question, although obscurely phrased, is one of the easiest interview questions to answer if you approach it properly.

2. in a way that is hard to discern or identify, or is not clear to the understanding.

   The end of the story made me wonder if Lila had only imagined the whole thing—a reading that felt obscurely troubling to me.

3. in a way that is not prominent or famous or that garners little public attention or importance.

   In the 17th century, the game of cricket grew up obscurely and locally as a game of the common people.

4. in a place that is out of the way and not easy to find or notice.

   The church is small and stands to one side of the village, rather obscurely.

   We trekked to an obscurely located arch of rock, hidden in a remote pocket of northern Arizona.

5. in a dim or murky way; faintly.

   In Poe’s poem, the “sad Soul” doomed to live in Dream-Land sees everything through “darkened glasses,” erroneously and obscurely.

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Other Word Forms

• subobscurely
  adverb
• unobscurely
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of obscurely

obscure ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

Obscurely, almost as if its diminished pulse responded to a more rapid pulse within the earth, the life of Nanty Glo began to quicken.

From Time Magazine Archive

Through brain and bosom Throngs not all life to thee, Weaving in everlasting mystery Obscurely, clearly, on all sides of thee?

From Faust; a Tragedy, Translated from the German of Goethe by Brooks, Charles Timothy

Obscurely sacrificed, his nameless tomb,  Bare of the sculptor's art, the poet's lines, Summer shall flush with poppy-fields in bloom,  And Autumn yellow with maturing vines.

From Poems by Seeger, Alan

Mine is Cythera, mine the Cyprian tow'rs: In those recesses, and those sacred bow'rs, Obscurely let him rest; his right resign To promis'd empire, and his Julian line.

From The Aeneid English by Virgil

Obscurely wounded in his pride, he tried to wound them in return.

From Howards End by Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan)