clandestine
/klanˈdɛstɪn
/ /ˈklandɛstɪn /adjective
Kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit: she deserved better than these clandestine meetings...
- I agreed to act as though our affair were a secret, a clandestine drama to be hidden from the rest of the world.
- Other clandestine links operate, smuggling arms and, according to the police, drugs into Northern Ireland.
- So far, if the clandestine meetings had gotten any easier, it was only marginally.
Synonyms
secret, covert, furtive, surreptitious, stealthy, cloak-and-dagger, hole-and-corner, hole-in-the-corner, closet, behind-the-scenes, backstairs, back-alley, under-the-table, hugger-mugger, concealed, hidden, private;
sly, sneaky, underhand;
undercover, underground;
Military black
informal hush-hush
Derivatives
clandestinity
- Even the most discrete of armadas might alter their plans and give hint to some clandestinity on our part.
- These leaders have spent all their adult lives in the cocoon of isolation and paranoia that clandestinity generates.
- ‘My client appreciates clandestinity,’ the dealer said.
Origin
Mid 16th century: from French clandestin or Latin clandestinus, from clam 'secretly'.