stowaway
Americannoun
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of stowaway
First recorded in 1850–55; noun use of verb phrase stow away
Explanation
A person who hides on a vehicle to get a free ride is a stowaway. If your cat sneaks into the back seat of your car and travels to school with you, she's a stowaway too! The verb phrase stow away came first, meaning "conceal," from stow, or "stash." By the 1840s, stowaway was being used as a noun to mean "clandestine traveler." Anyone who sneaks onto a boat, plane, or train and hides out during the trip, stowing themselves someplace secluded, can be described as a stowaway.
Vocabulary lists containing stowaway
Impossible Creatures
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for April 27–May 3, 2024
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The First State of Being
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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.
It has helped give mezcal an air of mystery for decades, but scientists have now shown that this famous bottle stowaway is not a worm at all.
From Science Daily • Apr. 26, 2026
The confused stowaway tried to hop away onto the freeway, but project overseer Robert Rock rescued the frog and released it at the top of the crossing.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 22, 2025
After illegally emigrating to the United States as a shipboard stowaway, the Colonel adopted the name Tom Parker, eventually finding work as a promoter with a traveling carnival.
From Salon • Aug. 8, 2025
Paddington arrives as a stowaway on a boat from South America and settles with the Brown family, who name him after the London train station where they found him.
From BBC • Oct. 22, 2024
But he didn't have enough money to buy a ticket for passage, so Dasch snuck onto a ship and sailed to America as a stowaway.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
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.
