What's the difference between covert and obscure?

Covert


Definition:

  • (v. t.) Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised.
  • (v. t.) Sheltered; not open or exposed; retired; protected; as, a covert nook.
  • (v. t.) Under cover, authority or protection; as, a feme covert, a married woman who is considered as being under the protection and control of her husband.
  • (a.) A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense.
  • (a.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Roshan was the latest victim in what is widely seen as a covert war against the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.
  • (2) Subsequent studies have demonstrated covert face recognition using behavioural tasks.
  • (3) His reports alleged active, sustained and covert collusion to subvert the election which, if confirmed, could constitute treason.
  • (4) The bill, intended to increase and update intelligence agency powers, would create a new framework for covert operations involving conduct that would otherwise breach criminal law.
  • (5) Somehow, despite all this, the Obama administration thinks it can “destroy” Isis, though, as the Post noted , the US government has not been able to destroy al-Qaida or any terrorist group in the last decade “through two wars, thousands of drone strikes and hundreds of covert operations around the world.” The only question now is how far this Forever War against Isis goes.
  • (6) Boko Haram spies spread the rumour that she refused to covert from Christianity to Islam.
  • (7) In general, the two studies show that qualitative characteristics of completely covert generations influence their impact on estimates of the frequency of external events.
  • (8) The drug subculture, the addict's family, and a methadone clinic all covertly elicit and reinforce this transformation maintained by the myth that the addict's is "out of control".
  • (9) A series of experiments were conducted on three severe prosopagnosic patients in an attempt to understand better this phenomenon known as covert face recognition, the conditions for its occurrence, and its functional locus.
  • (10) "Instead of actually fighting a conventional war, western powers and their allies appear to be relying on covert war tactics to try to delay and degrade Iran's nuclear advancement," Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis told Associated Press.
  • (11) The repurposing of the devices of unwitting users in foreign jurisdictions for covert attacks in the interests of one country’s national priorities is a dangerous precedent – contrary to international norms, and in violation of widespread domestic laws prohibiting the unauthorised use of computing and networked systems,” they conclude.
  • (12) Investigations mostly failed to show overt or covert face recognition, but NR performed at an above-chance level in selecting the familiar face on a task requiring a forced-choice between a familiar and an unfamiliar face.
  • (13) The covert self-evaluations were assumed to represent at internalization of early experiences of predominantly positive or negative social reinforcement from adult socializing agents.
  • (14) Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy at the British Humanist Association, welcomed the study, but said covert online access to abortion pills wasn’t enough.
  • (15) At the same time, by achieving a state of misery through following her mother's orders, she exposed her as ridiculous, and thus covertly discharged considerable aggression.
  • (16) Covert and overt depression was as frequent in the hysterectomized group as in the control group.
  • (17) The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said at Smith's tribunal that it believed some of the information held by the covert organisation and accessible to companies that subscribed to the service "could only have been supplied by the police or the security services".
  • (18) We now report that enhancement of calcium current in the peptidergic bag cell neurons of Aplysia by protein kinase C occurs through a different mechanism, the recruitment of a previously covert class of calcium channel.
  • (19) After all, the most basic freedom of all is the freedom to walk the streets unharmed and to sleep safe in our beds at night.” Parliament will soon debate the government’s first national security legislation bill to expand the powers of intelligence agencies and criminalise disclosure by any person of covert “special intelligence agencies”.
  • (20) It recommended that all radio communications taking place during undercover firearms operations should be recorded and covert armed response vehicles should be fitted with in-car data-recording systems.

Obscure


Definition:

  • (superl.) Covered over, shaded, or darkened; destitute of light; imperfectly illuminated; dusky; dim.
  • (superl.) Of or pertaining to darkness or night; inconspicuous to the sight; indistinctly seen; hidden; retired; remote from observation; unnoticed.
  • (superl.) Not noticeable; humble; mean.
  • (superl.) Not easily understood; not clear or legible; abstruse or blind; as, an obscure passage or inscription.
  • (superl.) Not clear, full, or distinct; clouded; imperfect; as, an obscure view of remote objects.
  • (a.) 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.
  • (v. i.) To conceal one's self; to hide; to keep dark.
  • (n.) Obscurity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This diagnosis was obscured by the absence of cutaneous, oropharyngeal, and respiratory involvement.
  • (2) The mechanism of ACTH action on brain catecholamine metabolism is still obscure, however, an increased release of the NA to ACTH peptides is very likely in the light of the present observations.
  • (3) However, peptide bonds between 193 and 194, and 194 and 195 were cleaved in the presence of mAb 1C3 as easily as in the presence of mAb 31A4, suggesting that the region of residues 200 to 202 was obscured by, or within the antibody binding site, but that the region of residues 193 to 195 was not.
  • (4) The physician's approach to the differential diagnosis of obscure, atypical pneumonias has changed.
  • (5) The thigh and hip manifestations can obscure the primary intra-abdominal process either due to the obvious emphysema or to the obtunded abdominal signs secondary to associated neuropathy.
  • (6) While tonic pupil and reduced sweating can be attributed to the affection of postganglionic cholinergic parasympathetic and sympathetic fibres projecting to the iris and sweat glands, respectively, the pathogenesis of diminished or lost tendon jerks remains obscure.
  • (7) It is found that generic averages obscure some rather substantial differences at the species level for both Cercopithecus and Cercocebus.
  • (8) Although the pathophysiology of the pancreatic injury is obscure, the lack of other etiological factors and temporal association of the pancreatitis with acetaminophen-induced hepatic and renal toxicity suggest a causal relationship.
  • (9) Because reticulocytes contain a pool of uncombined alpha chains which might have obscured the demonstration of an alpha chain-dependent mechanism for beta-chain synthesis, subsequent studies were done with bone marrow cells.
  • (10) However, the mechanism by which Ag II is able to modulate anterior pituitary secretion still remains obscure.
  • (11) Other causes were 20 (13%) with cerebrovascular diseases, 30 (20%) hepatic failure and 11 (8%) were of miscellaneous and obscure causes.
  • (12) In such a case with a large hematoma, the presence of a tumor may be obscured on CT scan and angiography.
  • (13) However, the difficulty still remains that the latter may be obscured by differences not related to thermostability etc.
  • (14) The activating mechanism of the condition still remains obscure.
  • (15) Its language is “archaic and obscure”, the commission says.
  • (16) Clofibrate, an antilipidemic drug that acts by a still obscure mechanism, is known to specifically increase up to 30-fold the activity of the hepatic cytochrome P-450 isozyme that omega-hydroxlates lauric acid.
  • (17) On the electron microscopy, the sarcomere was shortened and Z-line was partly obscure.
  • (18) Photographs of 82 boys from the Harpenden Growth Study were measured at ages 5 to 18 years, in an order that obscured which photographs were of the same boy at different ages.
  • (19) Although the K+ concentration of the contents of the GI tract as well as the K+ transport by the portal vein were increased, the source of the excess K+ remains obscure.
  • (20) The effects of long-term exposure of humans to formaldehyde, however, are more obscure.