surreptitious
adjUK /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/ · US /səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).
1
Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).
- He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
- It is also worth noting the case law on prisoners' correspondence which establishes that interception of a person's communications need not be surreptitious in order to amount to an interference with respect to Art 8 (1) [ECHR].1998, Lee A. Bygrave, “Data Protection Pursuant to the Right to Privavy in Human Rights Treaties”, in International Journal of Law and Information Technology, volume 6, number 3, pages 260–261:
- Synonyms
- covert
- Derived terms
- surreptitious advertisement, surreptitious advertising, surreptitiously, surreptitiousness, unsurreptitious
- Related terms
- subreption, surreptition