Ob·scene a.
1. Offensive to chastity or modesty; expressing or presenting to the mind or view something which delicacy, purity, and decency forbid to be exposed; impure; as, obscene language; obscene pictures.
Words that were once chaste, by frequent use grew obscene and uncleanly. --I. Watts.
2. Foul; fifthy; disgusting.
A girdle foul with grease binds his obscene attire. --Dryden (Aeneid, vi. 417).
3. Inauspicious; ill-omened. [R.] [A Latinism]
At the cheerful light,
The groaning ghosts and birds obscene take flight. --Dryden.
Syn: -- Impure; immodest; indecent; unchaste; lewd.
-- Ob*scene*ly, adv. -- Ob*scene*ness, n.
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obscenely
adv 1: to an obscene degree; "this man is obscenely rich"
2: in a lewd and obscene manner; "he had seen how in their
dances the white men and women held one another obscenely"
[syn: lewdly]