| 释义 |
under-cover, a. (and n.)|-ˈkʌvə(r), ˈʌndə-|
Also undercover.
[under-2.]
A. adj.
1. That is situated or occurs under cover; sheltered.
1854Poultry Chron. I. 288/2 It is obvious that..an ‘under-cover show’ has..manifest advantages over an exposed one. 1959News Chron. 14 July 4/4 A good fun-fair and some under-cover amusements. 1971Engineering Apr. 61/1 The first mentioned can be very useful when under-cover storage is not available.
2. a. Of a person: operating in secret within a community or organization, esp. as a detective or spy. Freq. as under-cover agent, under-cover man. Also applied to organizations or agencies.
1920U. Sinclair 100% 266 [Mrs. Godd] had written in a large, bland, girlish hand her opinion of ‘under cover’ men and those who hired them. 1932W. Faulkner Light in August ii. 41 Whiskey can be bought from Brown almost on sight, and the town is..waiting for him to..produce from his raincoat and offer to sell it to an under⁓cover man. 1933B'nai B'rith Mag. XLVIII. 108/1 German steamship lines were ‘in the front ranks of Nazi-ism—active under-cover nests of conspiracy’. 1951E. Paul Springtime in Paris iii. 67 An undercover worker for the Party. 1958Spectator 20 June 809/3 The Providence Island Company..which served as undercover organisation for the opposition to Charles I. 1970Toronto Daily Star 24 Sept. 12/8 The undercover agent is the surest way of handling narcotics problems in factories.
b. Surreptitious, covert. Of an activity: conducted or existing in secret.
1933Light Nov. 3/1 That undercover atheism which disguises itself under other names... The undercover atheism which so often sneaks by in the clothing of religion itself. 1935R. McKay ‘Intelligence’ Game 169 Perhaps they were made careless because they had an undercover ‘tip’ about the coming of the Austrian. 1953M. McCarthy Groves of Academe iii. 50, I have been useful to them from time to time in various little under-cover jobs. 1960Times 27 Aug. 7/3 The menace of recruitment to under-cover prostitution on a large scale cannot be ignored. 1979N. Mailer Executioner's Song (1980) i. xvii. 285 Years ago, when a patrolman, Nielsen did some under⁓cover work in narcotics.
B. n. An undercover agent. slang.
1962‘K. Orvis’ Damned & Destroyed vii. 50 The Horsemen have sneaked plants, undercovers, right inside here. 1972J. Mills Rep. to Commissioner p. x, She was a very good detective. She was a narcotics undercover. |