clandestine
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /klænˈdɛst(a)ɪn/
ipa: /ˈklændɪst(a)ɪn/
ipa: /ˈklændəst(a)ɪn/
rhymes: -ɛstɪn
Forms: form: more clandestine
form: most clandestine
Etymology: From Latin clandestīnus (“secret, concealed”); compare French clandestin.
Senses: examples: text: clandestine military operations
text: Monimia, who while she yielded to his earnest entreaties had always felt, from the natural rectitude of her understanding, the impropriety of their clandestine correspondence, would, he feared, be more than ever sensible of her indiscretion, when she found that a servant was entrusted with it...
ref: 1793, Charlotte Smith, chapter 1, in The Old Manor House, volume 3:
text: Whether the torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let us not inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did.
ref: 1818, Jane Austen, chapter 31, in Northanger Abbey:
text: Wildeve's clandestine plan with her was to take a little gravel in his hand and hold it to the crevice at the top of the window shutter, which was on the outside, so that it should fall with a gentle rustle, resembling that of a mouse, between shutter and glass.
ref: 1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 11, in The Return of the Native:
text: Lady Bullingdon could not, of course, countenance such an arrangement for a moment, and the two unhappy persons escaped for a clandestine marriage.
ref: 1912, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 9, in Manalive:
text: Bodies were always a nuisance -- even the small guinea-pig bodies from the slight clandestine experiments in West’s room at the boarding-house.
ref: 1922, H. P. Lovecraft, Herbert West: Reanimator:
text: Probably, the Master-at-arms' clandestine persecution of Billy was started to try the temper of the man...
ref: 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd:
text: As I stand at the edge of existence; nameless shores of infinity. Perpetual unbirth unraveling distance, clandestine truths unveiled.
ref: 2003, “Fugue”, in Trivium (music), Ember To Inferno:
text: In my imagination, all work place encounters between men and women result in clandestine sex.
ref: 2004, Penny Arcade:
text: 2005 — Stewart Lee, 90's Comedian DVD
And I don't want anyone to think I dislike Catholicism because I don't. It's actually my favourite form of clandestine global evil.
synonyms: word: covert
word: furtive
word: hush-hush
word: secret
word: secretive
word: undercover
word: abstruse
word: behind the scenes
word: catlike
word: stealth
word: clandestine
word: cloak-and-dagger
word: concealed
word: confidential
word: covert
word: deep-laid
word: dern
word: disguised
word: furtive
word: huggermugger
word: hush-hush
word: inconspicuous
word: incognito
word: low profile
word: lurksome
word: lurky
word: mousy
word: obfuscated
word: off-the-books
word: on the down-low
word: on the sly
word: secret
word: secretive
word: slinky
word: sly
word: sneaky
word: stealthy
word: sub rosa
word: surreptitious
word: under-the-table
word: under the radar
word: under wraps
word: undercover
word: underground
word: unperceived
glosses: Done or kept in secret, sometimes to conceal an illicit or improper purpose.
topics: Freemasonry
freemasonry
lifestyle
glosses: Not recognized as a regular member.
raw_tags: of a person or lodge
Derived terms: clandestinely
clandestineness
clandestinity
nonclandestine