in secret

Idioms  

1. Unknown to others, privately. For example, They met in secret, or, as Shakespeare put it in Love's Labour's Lost (5:2): “One word in secret.” [Second half of 1400s]

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Example Sentences

“Any self-imposed pause could lift at any moment, in secret and without warning,” the Maryland Attorney General’s Office wrote in response.

From Slate • Apr. 27, 2026

The Vatican also played a major role in secret negotiations that led the Obama administration to re-establish full diplomatic relations with Cuba in 2015.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Chelsea have been fined £10m and handed a suspended transfer ban after admitting making £47m in secret payments to unregistered agents and third-parties over transfers between 2011 and 2018.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2026

The government had spent days in secret talks with the players, who were whisked to a safe house after leaving their hotel on the Gold Coast.

From Barron's • Mar. 10, 2026

He collected beads from the braids in his mother’s hair and swallowed them in secret so he would always have a piece of her inside of him.

From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat

Related Words

• clandestinely
• covertly
• furtively
• personally
• privately
• quietly
• stealthily
• surreptitiously