▪ I. obumbrate, a. rare.
(ɒˈbʌmbrət)
[ad. L. obumbrāt-us, pa. pple. of obumbrāre to overshadow: see next.]
† a. Overshadowed, darkened. Obs. b. Entom. Concealed under some overhanging part, as the abdomen in some spiders.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xii. Prol. 66 Wod and forest obumbrat with thar bewis. 1599 R. Linche Fount. Anc. Fict. A a ij, In some obumbrate thicket let us dwell. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 42 To haue Mecenas praise This light obumbrat, Arthur courts the North. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 351 Abdomen..Obumbrate, when it is overshadowed by the trunk and concealed under it. |
▪ II. obumbrate, v. Now rare.
(ɒˈbʌmbreɪt)
[f. L. obumbrāt-, ppl. stem of obumbrā-re to overshadow, to shade, f. ob- (ob- 1 c) + umbrā-re to shade.]
1. trans. To overshadow; to shade, darken; to obscure. lit. and fig.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 181 Whome the holy goost did obumbrate or shadowe..with his presence and grace. 1632 Lithgow Trav. x. 432 To obumbrate the true light of the Gospell. 1654 tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 29 Aspiring Ramparts which obumbrate the Adriatique Sea. 1755 Smollett Quix. ii. iv. xvi, Madam Diana having taken a trip to the Antipodes, and left our mountains obumbrated, and our vallies obscured. a 1778 T. Gent Life 192 An action that for a while seemed to obumbrate the glories of Caesar. 1834 Southey Doctor v. (1862) 17 That awful wig which accompanies Dr. Parr..that portentous head which is thus formidably obumbrated. |
¶ 2. Misused for adumbrate, to shadow forth.
| 1632 Lithgow Trav. v. 174 More cleare then the force of policie can obumbrate their wicked deuices. 1741 Warburton Div. Legat. II. 556 The promises and denunciations..obumbrated a future state of rewards and punishments. 1824 Steward in Blackw. Mag. XV. 42, I rather take her to be obscurely obumbrated as the Ilia nimium querens. |
Hence obˈumbrated ppl. a., overclouded.
| 1592 R. D. Hypnerotomachia 3 My eyes before used to such obumbrated darkenes. 1751 Smollett Per. Pic. IV. xcii, Their countenances had begun to be a little obumbrated. |