DEFINITIONS
The
2019 WORD
OF THE YEAR is...

surreptitious

[ sur-uh p-tish-uh s ]
/ ˌsɜr əpˈtɪʃ əs /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR surreptitious ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

obtained, done, made, etc., by stealth; secret or unauthorized; clandestine: a surreptitious glance.
acting in a stealthy way.
obtained by subreption; subreptitious.

Content related to surreptitious

Foxy, Catty, Fishy: Are These Traits For Animals Or Humans?Catty It seems horribly unfair to adorable cats that catty is a human descriptor meaning “devious or spiteful” (and usually in reference to female behavior). What gives? The word cat has been around since the year 700. But then, in the Middle Ages, cat became one of the many offensive terms against women and was slang for “prostitute.” The association might have been made because …
READ MORE

Words related to surreptitious

covert, furtive, hush-hush, unauthorized, clandestine, fraudulent, hidden, private, sly, stealthy, undercover, underhand, veiled, sneaking, hole-and-corner, skulking, slinking, under-the-table

Words nearby surreptitious

surrebuttal, surrebutter, surrejoinder, surrender, surrender value, surreptitious, surrey, surrogacy, surrogate, surrogate mother, surround

Origin of surreptitious

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin surreptīcius stolen, clandestine, equivalent to surrept(us), past participle of surripere to steal, (sur- sur-2 + rep-, combining form of rapere to snatch, rape1 + -tus past participle suffix) + -īcius -itious

OTHER WORDS FROM surreptitious

sur·rep·ti·tious·ly, adverbsur·rep·ti·tious·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for surreptitious

British Dictionary definitions for surreptitious

surreptitious
/ (ˌsʌrəpˈtɪʃəs) /

adjective

done, acquired, etc, in secret or by improper means
operating by stealth
characterized by fraud or misrepresentation of the truth

Derived forms of surreptitious

surreptitiously, adverbsurreptitiousness, noun

Word Origin for surreptitious

C15: from Latin surreptīcius furtive, from surripere to steal, from sub- secretly + rapere to snatch
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012