Beclouds

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To make something harder to understand or see clearly; to cover the sky or an area with clouds or mist;
2. To obscure or confuse a concept or image; to envelop or partially hide an area with cloudiness or fog;
3. To cloud or blur someone's perception; to spread fog or clouds over a place or object

Etymology: "Beclouds" is the third-person singular form of "becloud," so it describes something that covers or obscures with cloud, or makes something unclear. The verb is formed from "be-" and "cloud." The prefix "be-" comes from Old English, where it could turn a noun or adjective into a verb that means to cover or affect something with that thing, so "becloud" is literally to cloud over. The base word "cloud" has its own older history: it comes from Old English "clūd," meaning a mass of rock or hill, and the sense of a visible mass of vapour in the sky developed later. Writers have used the verb in the figurative sense for centuries, so a memory, a judgment, or a plan can be "beclouded" just as the sky can be.

Synonyms: obscures, clouds, muddies

Antonyms: clarifies, reveals, clarifies