hush-hushadj.n.
Designating any object of manufacture, process, plan, or policy, the details or existence of which are kept secret, or (occasionally) a person engaged in such matters; also as n.: secrecy.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > secrecy, concealment > [adjective] > as part of plan, process, etc.
hush-hush1916
pink1924
hush1944
shush-shush1963
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > secrecy, concealment > [noun]
dighelnessc1000
dernship?c1225
derna1250
concealmenta1325
hidnessc1330
hiddennessc1380
privy1384
secrenessc1386
secre1390
stillnessa1400
secretnessa1475
hodelnessec1475
scuggery?a1500
hugger-mugger1529
closeness1562
secrecy1563
privatenessa1586
covertness1592
hugger-mug1654
privacy1702
conspiracy of silence1865
hush-hush1973
1916 H. W. Yoxall Let. 22 Sept. in Fashion of Life (1966) iv. 32 The hush-hush Tanks were splendid.
1919 C. P. Thompson Cocktails 133 The Flying Tank fixed the job without calling on that elaborate organisation for anything more hush-hush than a couple of batteries of heavy Hows.
1920 Glasgow Herald 3 May 8 The dramatic arrival at Baku in July, 1918, of General Dunsterville's ‘hush-hush’ force after its splendidly adventurous march through Persia.
1920 Glasgow Herald 12 Aug. 4 Minute accounts of the hush-hush birth of this new monster of war.
1922 Glasgow Herald 30 Aug. 9 A ‘hush-hush’ Bristol monoplane.
1927 A. E. W. Mason No Other Tiger i. 11 He had never been able to take the hush-hush men seriously.
1927 D. Lloyd George Slings & Arrows (1929) 184 That ‘hush, hush’ policy which prevailed before the war.
1931 Morning Post 5 June 12/4 Italian ‘hush hush’ car in Irish race.
1937 A. Christie Murder in Mews vi. 127 ‘A burglary? What was taken?’ ‘Oh, I don't know. It's all very hush-hush.’
1942 T. Rattigan Flare Path 1 Special. Very hush-hush. Not exactly a piece of cake, I believe.
1955 Times 26 May 4/3 In each party the idea of a broadsheet was the secret of a few. It was intended to be the ‘hush-hush’ weapon.
1970 Private Eye May 20 A hush hush top-level inquiry.
1973 A. Christie Postern of Fate iii. xvii. 249 The present trend of political thinking is that hush-hush, necessary as it is at certain times, should not be preserved indefinitely.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
hush-hushv.
transitive. To say ‘hush, hush’ to; to quiet, silence.
ΚΠ
1861 New Monthly Mag. Feb. 151 I don't feel the zest now that I used to feel cutting through the water with..that merry, wicked little dog, Phil Hervey, for coxswain; he's a bishop now, and hush-hushes you.
1883 G. Meredith Poems & Lyrics 49 Not the pines with the faint airs afloat, Hush-hushing the nested dove.
1928 Daily Express 12 June 10/4 She might have done it long ago if she had not been firmly hush-hushed by men.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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adj.n.1916v.1861