Definition of "befog" in English

verb

1. To envelop in fog or smoke.

   • 1953, Jean Stafford, “Cops and Robbers” (original title: “The Shorn Lamb”) in The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford, New York: Dutton, 1984, p. 432, Sad, in her covert, Hannah saw that her mother was now sitting straight against the headboard and was smoking a cigarette in long, meditative puffs; the smoke befogged her frowning forehead.

2. To confuse, mystify (a person); to make less acute or perceptive, to cloud (a person’s faculties).

   • 1871, Carl Schurz, Speech in the U.S. Senate, 27 January, 1871, in Frederic Bancroft (ed.), Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, New York: Putnam, 1913, Volume II, p. 151, The voice of interested sycophancy is apt to fill their ears and to befog their judgment.

3. To obscure, make less clear (a subject, issue, etc.).