hole-and-corner
Americanadjective
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secretive; clandestine; furtive.
The political situation was full of hole-and-corner intrigue.
-
trivial and colorless.
She was living a hole-and-corner existence of daily drudgery.
adjective
Etymology
Origin of hole-and-corner
First recorded in 1825–35
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.
Said one American: "Has an international document ever been ratified in such a hole-and-corner fashion?"
From Time Magazine Archive
The oxygen mask wall continue to put a new face on the secret agent of tradition, marking his release from the hole-and-corner, back-alley deals of history.
From Time Magazine Archive
You can say or print almost anything so long as you are willing to do it in a hole-and-corner way.
From Time Magazine Archive
As being preferable to hole-and-corner meetings in friends' houses——!
From The Big Drum A Comedy in Four Acts by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero
To wait would be infinitely preferable to a hole-and-corner business, with no prestige, no spectators, no one even to see her bridal array and Paul's necklace.
From Leonore Stubbs by L. B. Walford
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
