secretly
adv/ˈsiː.kɹɪt.li/ · /ˈsiː.kɹət.li/
Etymology From secret + -ly.
1
In secret, covertly.
- Mary cheated secretly in the test, and never got caught.
- Sometimes her prose hyperventilates ("Once, years ago, his and N.'s love for each other had glowed like phosphorescent fire on the surfaces of their bodies"), and she has a weakness for epiphanies ("There was a man, no longer young, though not yet old, who, traveling alone in northern Europe, began to feel that his soul was being drained slowly, almost secretly from him, drop by drop").1988 February 10, James Atlas, “DABBLING IN LOVE - NOT THE NICE KIND”, in The New York Times: