on the sly
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The math-proficiency analysis suggests it may be doing so on the sly.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2025
We were forbidden to speak Urdu, but my mother still taught us on the sly.
From New York Times • Mar. 1, 2024
He was paroled from detention but banned from work and national health insurance, though he worked on the sly until about eight years ago, when the government started to tighten controls over parolees.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 24, 2023
You started taking hormones kind of on the sly for a couple of weeks before you even talked to your wife.
From Slate • Jun. 2, 2023
Do my thoughts trade places like letters, on the sly?
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
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.
