secret admirer
Americannoun
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secret admirers
plural
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a person who is romantically attracted to someone else but shows it only in a way that does not reveal their own identity, as by sending anonymous gifts or messages.
I found an unsigned valentine on my desk from a secret admirer.
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a person who esteems or has a high opinion of someone or something but hides this fact from others.
Only after his death, when his diaries were discovered, did we learn that he was a secret admirer of opera.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of secret admirer
First recorded in 1600–10
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.
A third plaintiff, who is not named in the complaint, alleges that during her sophomore year she began receiving phone calls from a man who identified himself as her secret admirer, the lawsuit states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2022
Treat broccoli like a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent from a secret admirer.
From Salon ● Mar. 4, 2022
"It was like a secret admirer type thing," Petillo told Fox News.
From Fox News ● Dec. 22, 2021
In 1973, Sally Quinn, an irreverent Style reporter, let him know that she was his secret admirer.
From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2014
In her mind, she had narrowed down the possibilities of her secret admirer.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
