Library / English Dictionary

BLUR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: blurred    , blurring   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A hazy or indistinct representation

Example:

he tried to clear his head of the whisky fuzz

Synonyms:

blur; fuzz

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Hypernyms ("blur" is a kind of...):

internal representation; mental representation; representation (a presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image)

Derivation:

blur (become vague or indistinct)

blur (make dim or indistinct)

blur (become glassy; lose clear vision)

blur (to make less distinct or clear)

blurry (indistinct or hazy in outline)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become vague or indistinct

Example:

The distinction between the two theories blurred

Synonyms:

blur; dim; slur

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "blur" is one way to...):

weaken (become weaker)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blur"):

efface; obliterate (remove completely from recognition or memory)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Antonym:

focus (become focussed or come into focus)

Derivation:

blur (a hazy or indistinct representation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make dim or indistinct

Example:

The fog blurs my vision

Synonyms:

blear; blur

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "blur" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Cause:

blur; dim; slur (become vague or indistinct)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

focus (put (an image) into focus)

Derivation:

blur (a hazy or indistinct representation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make unclear, indistinct, or blurred

Example:

Their words obnubilate their intentions

Synonyms:

blur; confuse; obnubilate; obscure

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "blur" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

confound; confuse (mistake one thing for another)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blur"):

muddy (cause to become muddy)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make a smudge on; soil by smudging

Synonyms:

blur; smear; smudge; smutch

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "blur" is one way to...):

rub (move over something with pressure)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blur"):

resmudge (smudge again)

dust (rub the dust over a surface so as to blur the outlines of a shape)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Become glassy; lose clear vision

Example:

Her eyes glazed over from lack of sleep

Synonyms:

blur; film over; glaze over

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

blur (a hazy or indistinct representation)

Sense 6

Meaning:

To make less distinct or clear

Example:

The haze blurs the hills

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "blur" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

focus (cause to converge on or toward a central point)

Derivation:

blur (a hazy or indistinct representation)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Patients may present with blurred vision, visual field loss, floaters, and ocular pain.

(Ciliary Body Melanoma, NCI Thesaurus)

When signs and symptoms occur, they include blurred vision, visual field loss, floaters, and ocular pain.

(Choroid Melanoma, NCI Thesaurus)

Symptoms include blurred, cloudy, or double vision; sensitivity to light; and difficulty seeing at night.

(Cataract, NCI Dictionary)

I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Symptoms include heart palpitations, sweating, anxiety, lightheadedness, hyperpnea, anxiety, and blurred vision.

(Orthostatic Intolerance, NCI Thesaurus)

The occupants had evidently retired to rest, for all was dark save for a fanlight over the hall door, which shed a single blurred circle on to the garden path.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was thickly coated with soot from the passing engines, but the black surface was blurred and rubbed in places.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the left the low-lying land stretched in a dim haze, rising here and there into a darker blur which marked the higher capes and headlands.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Already we were in her dust, so that we could see nothing but the dim scarlet blur in the heart of it, rocking and rolling, with its outline hardening at every stride.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)