Surreptitious

Definition: Surreptitious

Surreptitious

Adjective

1. Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a lurking prowler"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"; "someone skulking in the shadows".

2. Conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods; "clandestine intelligence operations"; "cloak-and-dagger activities behind enemy lines"; "hole-and-corner intrigue"; "secret missions"; "a secret agent"; "secret sales of arms"; "surreptitious mobilization of troops"; "an undercover investigation"; "underground resistance".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "surreptitious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1781. (references)

Etymology: Surreptitious \Sur`rep*ti"tious\, adjective. [Latin expression surreptitius, or subreptitius, from surripere, subripere, to snatch away, to withdraw privily; sub- under rapere to snatch. See Sub-, and Ravish.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Surreptitious

Concealment

Obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline; skulking; Verb: surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner; sly; (cunning).; secretive, evasive; reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up; close, close as wax; taciturn.

Deception

Untrue; mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, snide, pseudo, spurious, supposititious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, scamped, fraudulent, tricky, factitious;bastard; surreptitious, illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated; unsound, rotten at the core; colorable; disguised; meretricious, tinsel, pinchbeck, plated; catchpenny; Brummagem.

Untruth

Adjective: untrue, false, phony, trumped up; void of foundation, without-foundation; fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths; unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged; fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious; elusory, illusory; ironical; soi-disant; (misnamed).

Crosswords: Surreptitious

Books

• Federal Bureau of Investigation confidential files the national security electronic surveillance card file and the surreptitious entries file (reference)

• Legal and Ethical Issues in Surreptitious Recording: Essays (Publication of the American Dialect Society, No 76) (reference)

• Stolne and surreptitious copies : a comparative study of Shakespeare's bad quartos (reference)

• Surreptitious (reference)

• Surreptitious Entry (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Economic History

South Korea

The administration became concerned about reports in mid-1998 of possible surreptitious nuclear-related construction activity at an underground site and engaged the D.P.R.K. intensively on the issue. (references)

Human Rights

Indonesia

Judicial warrants for searches are required except for cases involving suspected subversion, economic crimes, and corruption; however, security agencies regularly made forced or surreptitious entries into homes and offices. (references)

Chile

A 1995 privacy law bars obtaining information by undisclosed taping, telephone intercepts, and other surreptitious means, as well as the dissemination of such information, except by judicial order in narcotics-related cases. (references)

Travel

Costa Rica

A common ploy by thieves involves the surreptitious puncturing of tires of rental cars, often close to the car rental agency itself. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "surreptitious": a surreptitious glance ♦ surreptitious advertising. Additional references.

Ending with "surreptitious": semi-surreptitious.

Arabic 

‏سري (clandestine, classified, close, closet, confidential, covert, cryptic, discreet, furtive, hugger mugger, hush hush, inmost, low key, mysterious, mystic, occult, off the record, private, privy, sacramental, secret, slinking, stealthy, subterranean, umbilical, undercover, underground, underhand), ‏خفي (covert, cryptic, disguised, hidden, invisible, mysterious, occult, secret, stealthy, ulterior, unseen, veiled). (various references)

Bulgarian 

таен (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, confidential, cryptic, dark, darkling, esoteric, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, inside, mystic, occult, private, privy, recondite, secret, sensitive, sneaking, snug, undercover, underground, underhand), нелегален (clandestine, illegal), подмолен (factious, secret, seditious, subversive, underground). (various references)

Czech

tajný (clandestine, classified, confidential, furtive, hole-and-corner, inward, occult, privy, restricted, retired, secret, sneaking, stealthy, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unspoken), nedovolený (illegal, illicit, unlawful), kradmý (furtive, stealthy). (various references)

Danish

skjult reklame (surreptitious advertising), optagelse af hemmelig afflytning (to detect surreptitious intrusions). (various references)

Dutch

sluikreclame (surreptitious advertising), opsporen van clandestien binnendringen (to detect surreptitious intrusions). (various references)

Farsi 

پنهان (Abstruse, Cryptic, Latent), محرمانه (Backside, Backstage, Esoteric, Private, Secret), نهانی (Last, Occult, Potential, Secret, Suberranean, Undercover, Underhand), زیرجلی (Clandestine, Undercover, Underhand). (various references)

Finnish

piilomainonta (surreptitious advertising). (various references)

French

subreptice, furtif, clandestin. (various references)

German

verstohlen (covert, covertly, furtive, furtively, secret, shiftily, shifty, stealthy, surreptitiously), heimlich (clandestine, clandestinely, cryptical, furtive, hidden, inwardly, lurking, privately, quiet, secret, secretive, secretly, sneaking, stealthily, stealthy, stolen, surreptitiously, thievishly, undeclared, undercover), betrügerisch (deceitful, deceitfully, fraudulent, fraudulently). (various references)

Greek 

κρύφιοσ (covert, cryptical, lurking, stealthy, ulterior, underhand, underhanded), κρυφόσ (covert, furtive, occult, privy, sneaking, undercover), μυστικόσ (clandestine, esoteric, hidden, hugger mugger, mystical, private, privy, privy to, secret, suppressible, undercover, underground, undisclosed), λαθραίοσ (clandestine, furtive, smuggled, stealthy, stowaway). (various references)

Hebrew 

חשאי (clandestine, discreet, inmost, quiet, secret, silent, sneaky, stealthy, under cover, underhand). (various references)

Hungarian

lopva tett (stealthy), titkos (clandestine, classified, confidential, covert, cryptic, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hugger-mugger, hush hush, inner, lurky, mystic, occult, privy, secret, sneaking, stealthy, top secret, undercover), tilalmas (clandestine), kalózkiadású, ál (bogus, impersonator, phantom, phoney, pseud, sham, simulated, spurious). (various references)

Indonesian

curi (steal). (various references)

Italian

surrettizio, furtivo (furtive, slinky, stealthy), clandestino (backdoor, black, bootleg, clandestine, stealthy, undercover, underground). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

窃か (private, secret). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ひそか (private, secret). (various references)

Manx

gyn yss (by stealth, clandestinely, covert, in secret, on the sly, secretly, surreptitiously, unadvised, unawares, unconsciously, unexpected), fo-halloo (subterranean, underground). (various references)

Pig Latin

urreptitioussay

Portuguese

sub-reptício, secreto (arcane, backdoor, blind, classified, close, confidential, cryptic, deep, hole-and-corner, inmost, inner, occult, offscreen, private, privy, sealed, secretive, sneaking, stealthy, undercover, underhanded, under-the-table), ilícito (bootleg, contraband, foul, unauthorized, unlawful), furtivo (furtive, sneaking, stealthy), clandestino (backdoor, clandestine, gatecrasher, interloper, undercover, underground, underhanded, under-the-table). (various references)

Romanian

pe sub mânã (under hand), furiş (furtive, hidden, secret, stealthy), clandestin (clandestine, clandestinely, furtive, furtively, hugger mugger, illicit, privy, secret, secretly, surreptitiously, underhand). (various references)

Russian 

тайный (arcane, backdoor, clandestine, cryptic, dark, esoteric, furtive, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, offscreen, private, privy, quiet, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, under the table, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

skriven (cachectic, delitescent, dormant, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, secret, sly, sneaky, stealthy), tajan (clandestine, confidential, hugger mugger, secret, stilly). (various references)

Spanish

subrepticio (undercover). (various references)

Swedish

smyg- (illicit, sneak, sneaky, underhand), hemlig (arcane, blind, clandestine, close, concealed, confidential, covert, furtive, hole-and-corner, occult, offscreen, privy, quiet, secret, secretly, sneaking, under cover, underground, underhand, underhanded). (various references)

Turkish

kaçamak (casual, casually, escapade, evasion, evasive, furtive, hanky panky, loophole, run, running, salvo, shift, stealthy, subterfuge), hırsızlama (furtive, furtively, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy), gizli (arcane, back door, blind, camera, clandestine, classified, closet, concealed, confidential, covert, cryptic, cryptical, crypto-, disguised, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hush hush, inner, intimate, latent, masked, occult, perdu, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, restricted, sealed, secluded, secret, secretly, slinky, sneaking, sneakingly, sneaky, snug, stealthy, sub rosa, submerged, submersed, subterranean, subterraneous, ulterior, under cover, underarm, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, undisclosed, unsearchable, unseen), el altından (by devious means, by stealth, clandestine, clandestinely, hole-and-corner, in secret, on the sly, secretly, slily, sub rosa, under the counter, under the rose, undercover, underhand, underhanded). (various references)

Ukrainian

та�"мний (arcane, back door, backstairs, clandestine, close, closet, colorable, colourable, covert, cryptic, esoteric, hideaway, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, invisible, mystic, occult, occulted, offscreen, private, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, subterranean, undercover). (various references)

Vietnamese 

lén lút (backstairs, hedge, hole-and-corner, rose, sideling, sneaking, sneaky, stealth, stealthy), kín đáo gian lậu, bí mật (backstairs, clandestine, close, cryptic, cryptically, hush-hush, inward, inwards, private, subterranean, subterraneous, undercover, underground). (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "surreptitious": surreptitiously. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Surreptitious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: serreptitious, sureptitious, suriptitious, surrepetitious, surrepitious, surrepititious, surrepititous, surrepticious, surreptisious, surreptitios, surreptitiou, surreptitipus, surreptitiuos, surreptitous, surriptitious, surrptitious, surruptitious, suurreptitious. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-3 letters: proustites, prurituses, spirituous.

-4 letters: outpities, outstrips, posturers, proestrus, proustite, resprouts, spiritous, sportiest, stripiest, superiors.

-5 letters: osteitis, outpress, outserts, outstrip, pierrots, pietists, portress, posturer, postures, poutiest, presorts, prioress, priories, prissier, prosiest, prosties, protests, protists, pruritus, purities, pursiest, pursuers, pursuits, puttiers, reposits, resistor, resprout, ripostes, roisters, roupiest, rousters, ruptures, rustiest, sorriest, soupiest, spiriest, spitters, sporters.

+2 letters: supernutritions, surreptitiously.