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.
Three stowaway baby rabbits have been rescued after being discovered on a drilling rig in the North Sea.
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2026
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
A stowaway who allegedly flew from New York to Paris without a ticket last month has been arrested again for trying to escape by bus from the US to Canada.
From BBC • Dec. 17, 2024
Undisturbed, at least, until stowaway house mice arrived on seal hunter ships in the early 1800s, introducing the island’s first mammal predators.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 15, 2024
“Did you really think you could keep a stowaway without me finding out about it? Without him finding out about it?”
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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.
