hideout
Americannoun
-
hideouts
plural
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hideout
First recorded in 1870–75; noun use of verb phrase hide out
Explanation
A hideout is a secret place where someone can take refuge. Criminals or outlaws often lie low in a hideout to avoid being found by the police. A car thief might use his grandmother's apartment as a hideout to avoid detection. A group of ten year-olds might also have a hideout, a place that's protected from parents, bullies, older siblings, and anyone else who might interfere. Before the first use of hideout, in the 1880s, came the verb phrase hide out, or "hide from authorities," which was coined during the Civil War in reference to draft dodgers.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Pakistan's information chief said the strikes hit four targets, including a training camp, an ammunition cache and a hideout linked to two TTP commanders.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
Military spokesperson Lt-Col Haruna M Sani described the assault on Boko Haram's Mandara mountain hideout, "under cover of darkness", as one of the military's "most significant hostage rescue operations" in the north-east.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Even if a sniper can find a hideout, their body heat may warm it enough for drones with thermal imagery to spot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
A preliminary investigation into the man’s hideout found no signs of forced entry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
Charlie Nesson met the Ellsbergs at their final hideout.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
Scott has helped me understand that they remain hideouts and redoubts where we can still hope to find practices of liberty today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
"United, we must respond to those facilitating them -- whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil."
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
People Over Papers channels that same logic — only now the hideouts are ICE-free zones, mutual aid hubs and sanctuary spaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
To fight an elusive enemy operating clandestinely at night and from hideouts deep in swamps and jungles, the U.S. military turned to environmental modification technologies.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2025
She had been dating Claire for five months, and her arms were a place safer and better than all the backyard hideouts in the world.
From "Far from the Tree" by Robin Benway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
