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.
Her first winner came aboard Stowaway Pearl for John 'Shark' Hanlon at Thurles in 2011, and she turned professional four years later.
From BBC • May 12, 2025
Nancy Pelosi's husband has been a longtime member of Stowaway.
From Salon • Sep. 22, 2023
Embedded in the narrative DNA of the new Netflix movie Stowaway is one of the most iconic and controversial science fiction short stories ever published, “The Cold Equations,” by Tom Godwin.
From Slate • Apr. 27, 2021
“The Stowaway: A Young Man’s Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica” by Laurie Gwen Shapiro — about a teenager in the 1920s who desperately wanted to join an expedition to the South Pole led by Cmdr.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 13, 2018
"We're here, Miss Stowaway," said Glenister, entering the girl's cabin.
From The Spoilers by Beach, Rex Ellingwood
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.
