obscuring

Pluralobscurings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of obscure.

   Investigators accused the firm of obscuring its losses behind layers of complicated accounts.

   Thick smoke from the brush fire was obscuring the runway lights.

   Note

   The final e of obscure drops before -ing, as in securing and enduring. Today the verb takes an object, whether what is hidden is physical (smoke obscuring the runway lights) or abstract (obscuring losses, obscuring the truth); an older use meaning simply to hide oneself has died out. After a preposition it works as a gerund: accused of obscuring the facts.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The process of making something dim, hidden or hard to understand; a concealing or darkening.

   Critics objected to the deliberate obscuring of the report's key findings.

   As the fog rolled in, there was a gradual obscuring of the coastline.

   Similarconcealment, masking, dimming

   Note

   The noun is easy to tell from the verb form by its grammar: it takes the or a and links its object with of (the deliberate obscuring of the findings), where the verb form takes its object directly (obscuring the findings). It can also be counted, with the plural obscurings, for separate acts of concealing or darkening.

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