Surreptitious \Sur`rep*ti"tious\, a. [L. surreptitius, or
subreptitius, fr. surripere, subripere, to snatch away, to
withdraw privily; sub- under + rapere to snatch. See Sub-,
and Ravish.]
Done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or
introduced fraudulently; clandestine; stealthy; as, a
surreptitious passage in an old manuscript; a surreptitious
removal of goods. --
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
surreptitious
adj 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" [syn: furtive, lurking, skulking,
sneak(a), sneaky, stealthy]
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"
[syn: clandestine, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner(a),
hugger-mugger, hush-hush, on the quiet(p), secret,
undercover, underground]
WordNet (r) 2.0
70 Moby Thesaurus words for "surreptitious":
artful, back-door, backstairs, calculating, chiseling, clandestine,
collusive, concealed, covert, covinous, crafty, cunning, deceitful,
doggo, false, falsehearted, feline, finagling, fraudulent, furtive,
guileful, hidden, hidden out, hidlings, hole-and-corner,
hugger-mugger, hush-hush, in ambush, in hiding, in the wings,
indirect, insidious, lurking, on the sly, on tiptoe, private,
privy, prowling, pussyfoot, pussyfooted, quiet, scheming, secret,
secretive, sharp, shifty, skulking, slinking, slinky, slippery,
sly, sneaking, sneaky, stealing, stealthy, treacherous, trickish,
tricky, two-faced, under cover, under-the-counter, under-the-table,
undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, unobtrusive,
veiled, waiting concealed, wily
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
SURREPTITIOUS. That which is done in a fraudulent stealthy manner.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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