Hides half of Jacob's smokes (8)

I believe the answer is:

obscures

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'hides' is the definition.
(obscuring is a kind of hiding)

'half of jacob's smokes' is the wordplay.
'half of' suggests halving the letters.
'smokes' becomes 'cures' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'jacobs' with half the letters taken is 'obs'.
'obs'+'cures'='OBSCURES'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for obscures that I've seen before include "shrouds" , "Covers, darkens" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times (Crosaire) and The Irish Times.

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